I started claiming I was a socialist when I was 14, to yank the chain of the guy who sat in front of me in homeroom. It was the the Reagan years, which were reflexively “Go USA!” the way we are now but lacking the bitter edge. Our social-studies class that year was Civics, so […]
I have a whole new look for the afternoon, courtesy of my friend (fashion colleague? partner-in-chicness?) Tim. He said, “I dunno—today everything’s gotta go higher. Check out how it shows off that sassy white streak of yours!” The hair’s so vertical I had to pull out my copy of Silvertone and play “Dancin’ “… it’s […]
I laugh every time I hear Charlie Gilkey scold, “Your body is not just a transportation device for your head-!” Because my lifelong truth is that what’s happening in my head is so bright and noisy tthat I forget about the rest of me. Until it runs into something, or gets hungry. When I was […]
B is watching Agents of Shield. With headphones on, so I can hear the twilight birds’ news conference and the cicadas vibrating via the open laundry room window. I can also hear B turn to me and say, “This action scene is GREAT! She just slammed him up against a wall, threw him in the […]
…it is well to remind ourselves before we begin of the way in which metaphorical language—that is to say, all language—is properly used. It is an expression of experience and of the relation of one experience to the other. Further, its meaning is realized only in experience. We frequently say, “Until I had that experience, […]
Last August I told my friend J I’d take her out for lunch for her birthday present. Monday night she cashed my offer in for a happy hour that turned out to be dinner due to all the tasty appetizers. At least we made it before her next birthday! We were talking about our kids, […]
My summer Bible study is a quick one, four weeks. We’re covering (the Book of) Ruth, which is tidy since Ruth has four brief chapters: yay, Nancy (our facilitator)! If you haven’t read Ruth for yourself, pick it up and have a seat. It won’t take you long, and there’s always more going on within […]
Under the terms of our analogy, failure in the [Holy Spirit aspect of the creative’s Trinity] is the characteristic failure of the unliterary writer and the inartistic artist. […] I mean the men who use words without inspiration and without sympathy. They may be compared to the man who “has no feeling for” machinery…. It […]
[D]on’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent[?] There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection […]
