Caught up watching the the Charleston Massacre coverage unfold on TV. Face after face, some in tears, most beyond the comfort of tears. Death and loss, sorrow, heartache. Pain. Pain. This is the crux of the problem, isn't it? The emotional pain that is at the center of every human life. It is a bizarre … Continue reading Pain and Policy
Prayer For Charleston
These are the names of the people killed in the Charleston Church Shooting. Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, 54, a bible study member Susie Jackson, 87, a bible study member Ethel Lee Lance, 70, a 30-year church Sexton Depayne Middleton, 49, a bible study member Clementa C. Pinckney, 41, church pastor and South Carolina State Senator … Continue reading Prayer For Charleston
Size Matters
Been trying to find a way into this topic, Brothers and Sisters, but no luck. Maybe if we just chat awhile it'll dawn on us. And there are a lot of us's. Seven billion human beings and counting, alive right this instant, each pumping out many thousands of thoughts in a day, emotions zigging high … Continue reading Size Matters
Know What I’m Saying?
I rant, I scold, I coo, tickle and poke but I'm not changing any minds here. Okay, something new. Newish. Or at least, more spontaneous. For instance, the first line, with the ranting and cooing just came out and I left it in, even though it invoked parents and children, a subject I'm avoiding; not … Continue reading Know What I’m Saying?
The Resurrected Elephant in the Room
We do not die when our bodies die. Consciousness survives bodily death. Individually, we accept and accommodate this fact. Most of us have had personal experience around death, especially of loved ones, in which inexplicably, something in the room changes when a human being dies. Mind exits body in a loss perceptible on the deepest … Continue reading The Resurrected Elephant in the Room
The Long View
The Christian life of faith is called the Walk--it is both the Walk of Faith and the Walk with Christ. What we see in the first years of our Walk is in the most charitable sense of the phrase about us. He finds each of us in our personal ditch of pain and dysfunction; most … Continue reading The Long View
Luke 3:14
And the soldiers (police) likewise demanded of him, saying, “And what shall we do?” And he said unto them, “Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.” Take a minute. Think of the the stress put on Christian police officers who follow that particular scriptural injunction. Adrenaline alone … Continue reading Luke 3:14
Nones of the Above
Note: Going through the blog doing some housekeeping, I found this post in my Drafts file from 2015. As I read through it, I realized that, aside from now bringing Trump into the heart of my nightmares, things are pretty much as was. I could have written it yesterday. Then I realized I hadn't posted … Continue reading Nones of the Above
It’s just Rock n’ Roll, Innit?…
"What I always say is, if God raised Jesus from the dead, everything else is just Rock n' Roll, innit?..." London cabbie to N T Wright Amen Amen. It is precisely here, at the most outrageous of claims, the most egregious assault on common sense and experience, that Christianity depends. Dear Brothers and Sisters in … Continue reading It’s just Rock n’ Roll, Innit?…
Night Cap
Morning writer taking to the keyboard at night. Let's see what happens. What's on my mind? Give me a second... Reality, that's the ticket. The actual nature of the physical world and our experience living in it as human beings. In a 500 word essay. I know the Freshman Survey Course slacker in you is … Continue reading Night Cap
The Answer’s In the Back
I think I'm really starting to love this new iteration of the American Liberal. The way you love the happily retarded. Now, the anachronistic slur--not a slur really, as I hope we'll see--is intended only to set a time frame. I worked in the early 1970's at the now defunct Mansfield Training Center for the … Continue reading The Answer’s In the Back
Now Is The Time For Your Tears
"...bury the rag deep in your face for now is the time for your tears..." "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Caroll" Bob Dylan In circumstances vastly different from the Michael Brown shooting, Eric Garner was choked to death by a Police Officer while a video camera caught every horrific moment. Five or six officers swarm … Continue reading Now Is The Time For Your Tears
Three Dot Witness…
With the trip east and the computer crash--and sobering personal encounters--I lost the mojo for this blog...sat at the keyboard, twiddling a bum thumb feelin' mighty dumb and then some...words, images out of nowhere going nowhere...an Aztec on abandoned asphalt...the palpable mutual disdain of toy poodles and bonsai trees...a bowl of fat-gleaming mock-turtle soup...a bowl … Continue reading Three Dot Witness…
Is that what you think?
Got some good advice about this blog today from a life-long friend. That I had asked her for advice at all proves how needy I've become in just a couple of weeks. Beware, if you're in the stocks, this is not a gal to throw a rotten cabbage if there's a chamber pot handy. But she is … Continue reading Is that what you think?
Deep Breath
That’s funny, I thought to myself as I reread these blog postings from Introduction thru Air Quotes and really it was odd it hadn’t popped out at me before, conscious as I am of everything I’m putting out to the world through this latest exercise in writing, writing with purpose for the first time on purpose, so to … Continue reading Deep Breath
The Hour is Coming, and Now Is 