Category: General

If all goes according to plan, my youngest will move in to their dorm room Tuesday to start their freshman year next week; my own classes will start August 24; and my oldest will start in early September. The nice thing about working at or attending a college is the rhythm of it: the sense…

Yesterday, I led a church float trip on the Current River, Cedar Grove to Akers Ferry. We had some teenagers, some middle-aged, and a couple of octogenarian women, whom I will call Alice and Sally for their privacy. It worked out best for Alice and Sally to be in a canoe with me. The river…

The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian in Community I have been volunteering regularly at The Mission for a bit over two years now. For those who are not familiar, it…

A couple walks into a bank to ask about a new construction loan. The loan officer welcomes them back and discusses the options. The loan officer asks a few questions, such as the equity in their current home, their household income, and their credit. They give answers and are taken at their word to get…

This Independence Day, I’m thinking about our national myth. That is, the vision of the United States of America as a glorious democracy, colonized by those seeking religious freedom, born of revolution by noble heroes who believed that all men were created equal against a tyrannical king, and purged of the sin of slavery by…

Over the past few decades, five presidents have needed to address well-publicized incidents of race-related police brutality, starting roughly with George H. W. Bush and Rodney King in 1991 and still continuing today. (George W. Bush’s terms in office were surprisingly devoid of such incidents.) Each president has sought to comfort a hurting American public.…

When people say they don’t want to change what they really mean is they don’t have an incentive to change. Change the incentives and the behavior follows suit. James Clear Change is in the air these days. Between the fallout from COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests, it’s hard to imagine January 2021 looking…

Since America’s birth through armed rebellion, war has been used as a metaphor in a wide range of scenarios. Since the end of World War II, we had wars on poverty, drugs, and terrorism, plus a Cold War, in addition to conventional shooting wars. We use battle language when discussing cancer and other deadly diseases,…

A society’s baseline economic and political principles tend to infect, or at least affect, interpersonal relationships. I’m reminded of “Paint Your Wagon,” the Lee Marvin/Clint Eastwood movie adaptation of a musical. The setting is a gold rush town in 19th century California. A woman gets auctioned off as a wife (complicated story). The auctioneer is…

Je pense, donc je suis. Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. René Descartes Modern western thought traces its lineage through Descartes and his famous dictum. In essence, he created a mind/body dualism. Our senses may deceive us, so all we can really know for sure is what is inside our minds. Taken to…