Growth is the name of the processes that are at work in a living thing that sustains it’s life. Many of those processes are out of sight like the act of producing chlorophyl that a plant does. Or the movement of oxygen in blood to the far reaches of a body.
Continue reading Growth
Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob, and he was born into a family stressed by favoritism, intrigue, and competition. Joseph was also the favorite son of Jacob because he was the first son born to Rachel, Jacob’s second but favorite wife. Therein lies the problem.
Continue reading Dreamer: the Story of Joseph
Organizations doing good work for disenfranchised, sick, homeless, and hungry people are worthy of our thanks and our generosity through a partnership defined by our desire to help. Thanksgiving/Christmas is typically the time of year when folks start thinking about this and giving increases.
Continue reading Open Those Wallets
I can only imbibe a certain amount of television “news,” especially the kind that daily serves up the same brew even though it is poured out in different kinds of cups. After I got over the novelty of the “Yellowstone” mug and the “I’m allergic to morning mug,” I realized it was still the same drink every time.
I discovered that the monotonous diet was producing in me a huge sense of despondency and resignation. Hopelessness even.
Continue reading Resignation
You don’t hear that word much anymore – parsimony. It can mean frugal, but this is extreme. It is penny pinching, Scrooge-like behavior. It can also mean stingy. Hardhearted. Meanness or tightness.
Continue reading Parsimony
James Weldon Johnson was a writer, poet, and social advocate. He joined the NAACP in 1917 and later rose to leadership in the organization. Johnson is also famous for creating the Negro Spiritual called The Creation.
Continue reading God’s Work
Dag Hammarskjold was the second ever Secretary General of the United Nations and served from 1953-1961. Hammarskjold died in a plane crash in 1961, and that same year was posthumously awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. Throughout his life he kept a journal which was published after his death under the title, “Markings.”
Sometime in 1954 Hammarskjold wrote a warning in his journal. to the effect that, “Every virtue, every raw material which God gives us for our achievement can also become the keys to the Gates of Hell. Page 101.
Continue reading The Choice is yours
It’s not unusual to hear people complaining about the present and longing for the “good ol’ days.” The complaints are about almost anything that requires new knowledge, different skills, or uncertainty.
Recently a friend of mine said something like “remember polio?” He was comparing that scourge to the current pandemic. During the early 50’s approximately 35,000 people a year became infected with polio. Our nation was terrified by the prospects of paralysis and being confined to an iron lung.
Continue reading The Good ol’ days
Your face is a facsimile
Just like Lincoln on a penny
Telegraphing your mood
Helping friends see the inner you
Your mien a gift and welcomed clue
The day’s events accrued
On May 5 Mitch McConnell told reporters that he was, “One-hundred percent [focused] on stopping this new administration.”
It was an interesting line in the sand that he was drawing, not based on any principle or vision other than just putting his party back in power in Congress. It is a stunning assertion and effectively stops any possibility of inter-party dialogue or decision making for the good of the country.
Continue reading A Line in the sand
MonoLogue 