So, here we are….a new president-elect, a continuing and frightening economic down turn, probably a redefinition of who we are as a people united. Well, we can only hope “united.” News out today suggests that gun and ammunition sales are at an all time high. Uh oh! The desperate and hopeless and negative are getting […]
Before I became a senior citizen, I thought I was keeping up fairly well. After retirement, I began reflecting on how few actors and singers and other popular icons I knew by name any longer. I also became aware that I had allowed technology to outrun me. When observing video games, I remembered how much […]
No Excuses Needed! This is not only the best time of the year to let people know how special they are to you, but it may also be the best time of your life. Endorphins are those little thingies that wander around in your brain and, when activated, seem to offer great stimulus to your […]
How Much Have You Changed? Now that you are 50 or 60 or 70 or so, how much have you changed? Do you still see yourself as you were 10 or more years ago? What experiences, dramatic or subtle, have changed the mold you always saw yourself fitting? Visiting with my cousin the other evening, […]
What About Christmas, this year? Will we send cards or letters? How about gifts, will we be pressed by our own guilt, need, tradition, not to mention customary exchanges to spend when it really isn’t prudent to do so? How can we be honest with ourselves and everybody else on our list? How can we […]
Even with the euphoria of the election stirring us yet, we are met with a variety of foreboding signs requiring our laying out a plan. Instant gratification, a long term problem in America, will not come as a result of the voters’ choice on Tuesday. Like unstringing tangled Christmas lights, it will take a while […]
Blaming someone else for how you feel is an indicator of personal immaturity. You have heard the line, “You made me feel awful;” or “You make me mad”; or “It was your fault, you should have helped me through it”; or “You made me get upset”. The list is obnoxiously long and overwhelmingly incorrect. It […]
Dappled sunlight hits the ground through limbs almost naked of their leaves. A fat squirrel scurries across the leaf covered lawn, just outside my window. And the elections are over! This is the dawning of “what happens next” in a democracy faced with despair, but under girded now by hope. Some ask, where is the […]
For some of us who lived through the 60’s and fought the battles, particularly those waged around civil rights issues, Tuesday was a day of vindication. A Lutheran colleague emailed me last night; his note read, “A dream realized… I don’t mean just the election of Obama… But the dream we worked for… The diversity […]
The last several days you have been patient in allowing this writer a much needed vacation. The chosen locale was Sedona, Arizona, one of the most marvelous of geographic and spectacular sights anywhere in the world. What made it doubly enjoyable was we shared it with friends, who were our hosts. Last August, they were […]