-
Put up a Lightning Rod
Not long ago during a thunderstorm, my husband showed me a weather map App that displayed the lightning strikes in our area. Amazing and somewhat frightening too. And I thought, Wouldn’t it be something if you and I could see when spiritual lightning strikes a soul? Like moments when a person actually feels the presence of God, or when they experience conviction for sin, or in a situation where God displays his power to rescue someone, or times God gives peace in the midst of a crisis when there is no peace. Wouldn’t you and I be dismayed? It’s those astonishing instances when God breaks through the atmosphere of self-protection…
-
Did I Read 23 Books in 2023?
Stephen King refers to books as “portable magic.” Books enable readers to engage with the world beyond our own limitations and experiences. In early December, someone asked me how many books I had read this year. I had no idea. Beginning last year, I did start keeping track in the NOTES app on my phone, so later I checked and discovered I have read 23 in ’23. I am not a fast reader, nor do I compete with other readers or attempt to break records. I am a careful reader. I write in books and I work to remember at least some of what I read. I welcome book recommendations…
-
Kennedy Assassination Revisited Every Year
Remember and Reflect 11-22-63 Even if you were not alive in 1963 or you were too young to remember that day, listen to the voices of those who were there. Anywhere in the entire country, the whole country felt the shock. And the grief. And the questions. Anyone who remembers that day will remember where they were, what they were doing, as well as what came next. “Presidential assassinations leave a deep scar on our collective memory and consciousness as a nation.” This quote comes from a 1993 book published by Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, TX, which included surgical details of the injuries sustained from gunshot wounds to John…
-
Eclipse: to block out, obscure, or conceal
My daughter and her husband took their kids on a two hour drive to Midland to see The Ring of Fire Eclipse on Saturday, October 14, 2023. I hadn’t paid attention to this solar eclipse, even though the path for viewing was nearby. But then I started thinking about my mom, Carly Simon, and Annie Dillard. Annie Dillard Annie Dillard wrote an essay titled, “Total Eclipse,”[1] which was published in The Atlantic in 1982 and later included in her book Teaching a Stone to Talk. Her experience took place on February 26, 1979 when she and her husband drove from the Washington coast to central Washington. Early the next morning…
-
Some People Never Learn
And that’s a shame. A tragedy. A waste. Some people keep repeating the same mistakes. I used to think the red-pencil marks on papers judged me. Me as a person. A failing grade amounted to failure. The red flags waved, “Why didn’t you know the answer to that question?” (Ignore all the questions you got right.) Education establishes a model where learning takes place in a particular context that includes tests over the material taught. But the real tests of what we learn take place in life beyond the classroom. A Recent Test At the first season performance of the Symphony at the Buddy Holly Hall, a woman seated near…
-
Jayber Crow: The Value of a Small Life
Intrigued by the words “the value of a small life,” which I heard on a podcast in January, those words refer to this book. Jayber Crow : The Life Story of Jayber Crow, Barber of Port William Membership, as Written by Himself (published 2000) is actually a novel written by Wendell Berry as if it is a memoir written by the character the author created. Timely and timeless, Jayber’s story transported me to an unfamiliar setting, a bygone time, and describes people I know. Including myself. An excerpt: “If you could do it, I suppose it would be a good idea to live your life in a straight line––starting say,…
-
New Year’s Solutions and High Hopes
Resolutions don’t work. If 41% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions and fewer than 9% achieve their goals by year’s end, how many people will move to Montana this year? Statistics often make absurd connections. Correlation is not causation. Causes of problems are usually much deeper, going far beyond observation. Dictionary definitions: New Year’s resolution: promise to do something different in the New Year resolve: to deal with successfully solution: an action or process of solving a problem The difference between promising to do something to create change and actually solving a problem lies somewhere between a person’s ears. A wise teacher said to me many years ago, “You behave…
