It’s official. I’m tanner than Erik. Now, you might say that this a very stupid contest for me to engage in, what with my Dutch genes and Erik’s Norwegian ones. Clearly, we are not tanners and whatever tanning ability we have is probably a Northern European draw, right? Nope. Erik’s dark-haired and olive-ish skinned, and [...]
One: Praise the Lord, the Maker of all, skies and seas, pebbles and puddles alike. Many: Praise to the God of big and of small. One: Praise the Lord, the Redeemer of all, powerful and pretentious, homeless and hidden alike. Many: Praise to the God of big and of small. One: Praise the Lord, the [...]
Matthew 5:5; Romans 12:1-3; Psalm 37 Fox Valley Presbyterian Church Twice in my life, on a bus in a foreign country, I’ve had a moment where I understood how big Americans really are. In Guatemala, I rode a chicken bus (called chicken buses because people transport everything, including their chickens). Latin America is where [...]
The flurry of activity over the female VP nominee seems to have everyone weighing in about what it means to be a working mom. Now, I’m not going to get into the fracas about the governor of Alaska specifically, but I will say that I am downright angry at just about every side in the [...]
I am oh-so-aware that the rhythm of my work life is very different from most other middle class North Americans’. Monday morning this fall is going to be my quiet morning (I’m just thinking that I wish I could go out and buy a Sunday paper on Monday morning…maybe I should start walking up to [...]
I know everyone else is horribly curious about this: What exactly are the pression questions on the 13-year-old mind? Well, after a confirmation kick-off yesterday, over pizza and soda floats, my troop of 13 years olds are interested in the following things: The Trinity—what on earth is it? The Divine and Human Natures of Christ—how [...]
Here’s something I’ve been thinking about after hearing this excellent interview with Alan Ball, creator of some very interesting TV shows and movies. Ball’s new TV series is about vampires, and in this interview, he comments that one of the things the whole vampire-genre get sone thinking about is the value of life. Vampires (in [...]
OK, I’m trying not to be political. But, I just can’t leave this alone. The former mayor of New York just noted, with scorn, that the current senator of Illinois of “immersed himself in Chicago politics.” Yes, I realize there is a Chicago political machine. I realize it is infamous. But, um, New York has [...]