One reason I celebrate Christmas is to acknowledge the mystery of the spiritual become material; God made manifest. The highest spirituality — beyond our comprehension and beyond our proper naming — has been made individual, human, and cuddly: Jesus, a newborn baby in a manger. This is a theological concept so strange many cannot comprehend […]
Uncle Jay’s Flag
This 48-star American flag will not be ignored. It is the memorial flag of U.S. Army veteran Jay Henry, my wife’s uncle and, by marriage, my uncle. My wife knows almost nothing about him. Call him an unknown soldier. He was his mother’s first illegitimate child, fathered by some married man who never acknowledged him. […]
Migrating Canada Geese
The high-flying formations of Canada geese still delight my 79-year-old eyes. Often heard before seen, honking their way across the sky, they seem wild and free. Me? I am rooted, rooted for now, still living in the same house my wife and I purchased 25 years ago. I do not take stability for granted. Even […]
The World Wants Us Happy
Last week, leading a discussion about taming the ten thousand things, I said, “The world wants us to be happy.” It was a bold, reckless statement coming from someone usually so careful in his metaphysical claims, yet it captures my fundamental optimism, fickle as it may be in practice. Reality is not a clenched fist […]
Small Victories – Storm Door Latch Fixed
The front storm door was not latching. It latched a few months ago; why not now? Idea No. 1 — there is something between the door and the jamb. So I cleaned out a small mud dauber’s nest and other debris from where the door seated. That did not help. Idea No. 2 — something […]
My Troubling Insight in brief
I hate pleasing him, yet I keep talking about him. I am as guilty as anyone, his co-conspirator. See here! Even now I am talking about him! No name is needed. He gets his supporters to cheer and his detractors to howl. He keeps us ringside, clapping and booing, a ringmaster who compels our attention […]
What Makes This Task Mine Mine Mine?
God help me, but I wonder about things, like what makes this or that task mine mine mine? Many a task is everyone’s responsibility us us us but not the responsibility of anyone in particular. Something needs to be done but who should do it? Me me me? You you you? For example, something needs […]
Humbled, not humiliated.
I confess. I am frequently dismayed when reality does not meet my expectations, when once again my notions prove false. I feel mortified, humiliated, stupid. Some people claim to be delighted whenever reality makes them change their minds. They cannot make mistakes fast enough. They welcome the experience as a revelation, however painful it might […]