Piety and pride can do terrible harm, but they can also create enormous messes when combined with politics. The looming elections have us all in tail tizzies, but once again the hard core Christians seem to have it all under control with their god. Back in the 2008 presidential elections, I was especially intrigued by what happened during that campaign at a rally in Davenport, Iowa, when Rev. Arnold Conrad offered this invocation: I would also pray Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world […]
Marvelous Mary of Mannsdale
The black and beautiful life of Mary Goins mattered to a multitude of my people. She lived every inch of her life with a gracious dignity that made it so easy for all of us to love and respect her. She was born a slave as the Civil War erupted in 1861 and died in what was purported to be freedom in 1961, when she was a hundred. She was a native of Mannsdale, Mississippi, and never left. She lived on Granddaddy’s place up that short path past those haystacks on a pole. The house was both delightful and dilapidated […]
We’re Not Jewish; We’re Southern!
When they were nine and six, our oldest grandchildren were discussing religion around the kitchen table. Their mother was a family counselor for the large Jewish Community Center in Charlotte, so she enjoyed the various holidays of that faith. Since this family had yet to find a “church home”, religion was a confusing topic at times. So Cooper raises a question at the table: “Mom, are we Jewish?” Having just observed Christmas and Hanukkah, of course the kid was confused. While his mother was trying to explain it all, his very wise sister Claire exclaimed in exasperation, “Cooper, we are […]
Pumpkins, Posters & Politics
While the days grow shorter, fall colors are carousing with our natural surroundings. No, the leaves haven’t turned their bright orange or brilliant red yet, but the highways are scattered with political posters as candidates change their colors for this special season. Elections bring out all sorts of flamboyant characters, each claiming to stand in that great tradition for truth, justice and the American way. Well, maybe just the American way, whatever that may be these days when truth and justice seem so elusive to so many of our citizens. Republicans and Democrats strut their banners and sling their slogans […]
Simple Things Matter a Great Deal
Andre Dubus had stopped to help a woman and a man stranded on the side of a highway when he was hit by a passing car. He saved the woman’s life by throwing her out of the way, but he lost one of his legs and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Dubus was a college professor of creative writing and an author of many good short stories; as a result of that incident he said, “Some of my characters now feel more grateful about simple things — breathing, buying groceries, sunlight — because I do.” Some […]
Forgive Us Our Ubiquitous Words
Remember those awkward collisions of somewhat sacred words when worshippers from different backgrounds tried to blend their versions of Jesus’ prayer: “forgive us our *#*%@ as we forgive those who #*%&@* against us…” At least, that’s what it sounded like as “debts and debtors” took on “trespasses and those who trespass against us…” This war of the words can easily distract us from the substance of the utterances. Somewhat like that preacher who began the sermon with these words: “While we are here for an hour to worship, 240 children will die of starvation, and we won’t give a damn.” […]
You Must Remember This…
…a kiss is just a kiss, on that you can rely…” Those lovely lyrics from the the classic song “As Time Goes By” have been a haunting reminder of something that’s missing in our lives during these pandemic days. I’m good and ready to take off this kiss-proof mask and spin the bottle toward the good old days of simple affections. A kiss is a rich symbol of more than puckered lips applied to other lips or cheeks, but when will we ever get to kiss even the poet’s “joy as it flies”? Or to paraphrase the Psalmist: “How long, […]
Asymptomatic
Within this past year of aging as gracefully as I know how, I found out that I had a medical condition unknown to me altogether because it was asymptomatic. I happened to be at a walk-in clinic to check out my ear when they discovered that my heart was broken. I felt as cool as a center seed in a cucumber while my heart was going ninety to nothing. I had no other indicators of my cautious cardiac condition, which was later called atrial fibrillation, or “a-fib” for short. Through the miracle of medication and a procedure called cardio-version, my […]
Days and Nights of Our Lives
“Like sands through the hourglass, so these are the days of our lives.” Those iconic words have introduced a soap opera for what seems like eons, but it’s only been around for 55 years, which happens to be long enough in hourglass hours and days of so many lives that mattered enough to maintain their ratings. Let me invite us all to turn off the television, unplug it, and step outdoors under the canopy of late summer stars and their sister planets. Here we might use our rusty imaginations to think about the days and nights of our own lives. […]
Eyes of the Beholders
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is just another way of saying that beauty can be subjective. Jesus of Nazareth taught us that the eye is the “lamp of the body” and insuates throughout his life that the eye is somehow connected to these hearts of ours in order for us to figure out truth as well as beauty. One day his disciples asked him why he taught in parables, and he replied that they [his hearers] are blind to the truth that is right before them. “The reason I speak to them in parables is that “seeing […]