MARCH 19, 2024 – (Cont.) One of the papers I wrote for that freshman year survey course in Western Civilization was about the sincerity of Constantine’s conversion. Was he truly committing mind, heart, and soul to Jesus or . . . being a supreme opportunist was he simply riding the rising swell of Christianity within …
CAR TALK ON THE WAY TO SECOND GRADE
DECEMBER 7, 2023 – Late last night after a pleasant day filled with numerous wonders, I watched 20 minutes worth of the fourth Republican Presidential Debate (so called). DeSantis and Ramaswamy managed to set my hair on fire, while two or three times Chris Christie made me cheer out loud when calling out his colleagues …
WOŁYŃ (PART II OF II)
MAY 30, 2023 – (Cont.) Second: the plight of women. This is one of history’s great challenges. With some notable exceptions, women have shouldered burdens and abuse disproportionate to their 50% representation of humanity. (In the case of extremist Ukrainian atrocities against the Poles of Volhynia, women and children were a sizable majority of the …
HARDWIRED
MAY 27, 2023 – Recently, while I was hiking the hills of “Little Switzerland,” a golfer in his late 20s called out a greeting to me as he strode from his cart to the tee. An extrovert, he prompted me to respond similarly. I reciprocated and added a passing observation about the late-day improvement in …
A GOOD FRIDAY FOR A WALK IN THE WOODS
APRIL 7, 2023 – I threw the plastic sled in at the last minute, thinking it might come in handy. Good thinking. On impulse I’d decided to take a quick overnight trip up here to ski sections of the Birkebeiner Trail tomorrow morning for Day No. 124 of a record season. The forecast calls for …
MODERN MONK (PART II OF II)
MARCH 8, 2023 – (Cont.) Brother Abraham’s letter is entitled, “My Favorite Things,” which is as innocuous as his first sentence is predictable: “Life in a monastery is designed to give the monks and guests constant reminders of the centrality of God.” Brother Abraham then mentions the seven daily corporate prayer sessions in the Abbey …
MODERN MONK (PART I OF ??)
MARCH 7, 2023 – My mother was heavily involved with her branch of Christianity—the Episcopal Church. Over decades, she was church organist, youth choir director, Sunday school teacher, vestry member, Bible study leader, building committee member, chief informal advisor to the rector, head of this committee and that . . . not to mention a …
“JIM” WEBB, PHILOSOPHER
JULY 15, 2022 – If you’re like me—semi-normal—you’ve beheld in awe, the recently released images captured by the James Webb telescope. Perhaps you’ve explored the science behind those pictures, but again, if you’re like me, you haven’t—beyond a cursory narrative. Inside my personal universe the images prompt a feeling of déjà vu. Is NASA deploying …
ALONG A LONG RAILWAY (“OFF THE RAILS” – PART XI IN A LONG SERIES)
MAY 13, 2022 – After a protracted account of the scenery inside the Trans-Siberian train, it’s time to detrain for a bit to visit grounds beyond the railway. As mentioned earlier, I’d scheduled an interruption of the eastward journey with a stop in Irkutsk, by far the most sizable settlement within a very long radius …
WARSZAWA (PART III OF III)
APRIL 13, 2022 – During my days in the capital, which included mass, pro-Solidarity demonstrations that I joined to get a closer look, I learned three things about Poland that would’ve escaped me without on-the-ground exposure. First was the psychological proximity of WW II. For many Americans, that conflict was epitomized by Pearl Harbor, D-Day, …
L’ABRI
APRIL 1, 2022 – Twice in Switzerland—during my 1979 Eurail trip—I’d practiced a “religion” of mine: downhill skiing. One “worship ceremony” occurred on the Aletsch Glacier next to the Jungfrau in the Bernese Oberland. Surrounded by Alpine peaks and bathed in sunshine, I made two mistakes: I wore shorts and forgot to apply sunscreen to …
GENIUS OF THE SOUL
JANUARY 17, 2022 – As a photography hobbyist, I target scenes. As a cancer patient, I’m targeted by new perspectives. On Saturday evening, the film, A Hidden Life, 2019 masterpiece by American filmmaker Terrance Malick (Amazon Prime)—struck the bull’s eye. It probes as deeply as a Mahler symphony and explores the soul as far as …
LIGHTING THE HEART OF DARKNESS
JANUARY 8, 2022 – Friday night I awoke from troubled sleep. In the heart of darkness, thoughts unleashed my fears and agitated my moorings. In contempt of this disturbance, I summoned an imaginary flock of sheep and sent them one-by-one over a New England stone fence. This imagery soon went awry, however, when the sheep …
STAR OF BETHLEHEM
DECEMBER 23, 2021 – Recently, we took our six-year-old granddaughter on a driving tour of local, outdoor Christmas lighting displays. There were the usual “icicles” and the new-fangled “dripping” lights; inflated Santas, looking slightly drunk as they swayed in the artificial wind of their internal fans; life-size Nutcracker soldiers of heavy plastic; lights wrapped around …
WHAT WOULD CHRISTMAS BE WITHOUT IT?
DECEMBER 17, 2021 – As I lie low with The Blasted Cough, and no holiday visitors are expected at our hearth this year, we’re not buying a cut-from-the earth Christmas tree. What’s ironic is that by my latest count, we have 17 “pretend” Christmas trees on display—not including the flat, felt tree (which our granddaughter …
ON THE NATURE OF “GOD”
OCTOBER 23, 2021 – Recently, I’ve witnessed fear and suffering—up close and personal. I’ve also seen hope and kindness that confirm my faith in humanity. When peering into a matter of life and death, the existence or non-existence of “God” enter one’s thoughts. After the crisis passes, one contemplates the “Great Power” from multiple perspectives …
“THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD”
APRIL 4, 2021 – Today is Christianity’s big day when lamentations over the Crucifixion change to shouts of “Halleluiah!” over the Resurrection. This is the day when it is said that Jesus, deader ’n a door . . . er, crucifixion . . . nail, came to, sat up, rolled the stone away from the …
“GOOD” FRIDAY
APRIL 2, 2021 – When I was young, I couldn’t figure out what was good about “Good Friday.” From my limited perspective, it was all bad—first the betrayal, then the taunts, then the crown of three-inch thorns pressed onto his head so hard . . . A-a-h-h-h! . . . then spikes hammered through his …
DONKEY PARADE
MARCH 28, 2021 – I remember Palm Sunday of my childhood. At some point you’d wind up with a palm cutting in one hand and a small palm cross in the other. As I recall, you were supposed to save the palms until Lent the next year. Mine never lasted that long. As to the …
INSIDE CHURCH
MARCH 12, 2021 – Last Wednesday I wrote about “church town” U.S.A., which was a tad weird, given that I’m wholly unholy. Call it nostalgia or . . . the aging process amidst a world in constant tumult. My earlier post, however, didn’t go inside any of the mentioned churches. That’s because I myself never …
LAND OF RELIGIOUS PLENTY
MARCH 10, 2021 – Where I grew up, sometimes you’d run into a kid who went to Mt. Olivet Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, hidden on our side of town; the Baptist Church, standing across from Monty’s Pure Oil at Main and Ferry; the Congregational Church, sitting modestly behind Anoka Junior High School; the understated Methodist …
A CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT
FEBRUARY 24, 2021 – My wife and I have been watching The Crown on Netflix. I’m surprised. I’ve never been interested in British Royalty—they’re British and they’re royalty. Besides, I’ve always thought the current members were off kilter; not up to the job. Now I’m learning that apparently the Queen lacks a normal range of …
CONFESSION OF A COULD’VE BEEN “EVANGELICAL”
May 22, 2020 – I used to be a Lutheran—the moderate strain, meaning, E.L.C.A. (“Evangelical Lutheran Church in America”), which, ironically, was in contrast with the “Evangelical” persuasion that one usually associates with that term. How and why I became entrenched in mainstream, moderate Lutheranism—congregation president, chair of the worship committee, perennial Sunday school teacher, …
HAPPY, UNHAPPY EASTER!
APRIL 12, 2020 – When I peered out the window this morning, I was happy to see daylight, but unhappy that the sun was hiding behind a thick overcast. As a skiing fanatic, I was happy to see snow on the ground. As a rationale adult I was unhappy to see snow on the ground. …
TRIGGER WARNING!
NOVEMBER 27, 2019 – Less than a month ’til Christmas. Given the overnight blizzard, Thanksgiving in these parts, at least, will be a white one. Oops! I hear disapproving groans over “Christmas” in place of “December 25” and “Thanksgiving” instead of “Genocide Memorial Day.” Know that my own relationship with religion (and revisionist history?) is …