Reach out and touch someone
Personal touch never goes out of style and may be our soul’s way to “save” us from ourselves.
Will this be life-giving for me?
How can we tell if something is alive? Biologists look for 5 traits, processes or functions as signs of life: metabolism (consume, construct, destruct, excrete) growth (learn, build, improve) reproduction (spawn offspring or ideas) responsiveness (sensitive, attentive, active) movement (action, progress, liveliness) These are the characteristics of life — the life of anything. That’s cool, […]
I Am not A.I.
A.I., you and I are different. I feel. I feel the rays of the sun warming my face, the chill of the cold deep in my bones, the pressure of your hand holding mine and mine, resting in yours. I feel the jitters when test scores are posted, the wrenching when news isn’t good, the […]
Quitting is the best thing he ever did…
Bill, sweet man, I just met him. Honest, open, friendly, kind. Shares a bit about himself and his family. Got three kids, “all medical,” he says. “The oldest used to be a doctor, but he quit.” “Says quitting is the best thing he ever did.” “Says, now he gets along with his wife…” Bill shakes […]
Who Missed Manny Machado?
There are many kinds of poverty. During the MLB National League Championship Series, I have observed a stark demonstration of poverty: the very impoverished behavior of an exceptional individual. He is talented, capable, skilled and highly paid. But, by the way he plays and the way he behaves, he shows a deep, deep poverty. He […]
Dear Christine, Dear Brett
Dear Christine Blasey Ford, I believe you. For the same reason Bible scholars offer to believe the first disciples, witnesses to the resurrection of Christ. Though they could not produce physical evidence other than their first-person testimony (which varied from evangelist to evangelist) and could not provide tangible proof for investigating authorities. No, they are […]
In-formed by Love, not News
The gruesome experience “informed” his art. The break-in and near death experience, “informed” his life’s course. The death of her mother by suicide “informed” her field of study. The assault she survived “informed” her very life. What happens in our lives in-forms us. What we experience forms us, on the inside. We say we live in an […]
United to Love: Rally Day 2018
We knew they were coming. The group of white supremacists had been issued a permit to gather in Lafayette Park, on this, the one-year anniversary of the “unite the right” event in Charlottesville. At their 2017 gathering, Heather Heyer, a counter-protester, was killed, while others were physically injured and their city was left scarred and […]
Collective Joy
They’re out. All twelve boys and their soccer coach are free. What is it about that news sends me to the verge of tears? I’m a soccer coach. I have taken my teams on excursions as team building opportunities. None of these have gone badly wrong, but they could have. I’m a parent. I cannot possibly […]
Dear Graduates, chart your own course
Caps and gowns everywhere! Smiling faces. Proud parents. Adoring Grands and even congratulatory hugs from siblings. It’s a great occasion and we mark it with well-deserved fanfare. Pomp. and. circumstance. So many graduates! I imagine each of them bouncing on their own personalized trampolines, springing giddily into the air, paying no heed to the creaking complaints […]