Radical Joy
My grandfather farmed tobacco for decades in rich, terra cotta- colored soil 20 miles outside Winston Salem, North Carolina. A summer evening when I was a child, while visiting my grandparents, one of their barns caught fire and burned to ashes. I was mesmerized by the brilliant blaze reaching high into the black night. A neighbor from down […]
Stay Awake!
Driving was slow and rough at 50 below zero according to the thermometer in Whitehorse, on the AlCan Highway. It was New Year’s Eve and we had passed only two oncoming cars all day as brief hours of daylight faded. “Stay with your car if you go off the road,” the Mountie said as we […]
Snark Can’t Save Us
“Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” The criminal, being crucified alongside Jesus, can’t help himself from joining in the mocking.* Even as he begins to suffocate under the weight of his own hanging body, he uses his precious breath to harangue Jesus, sneering and snarky to the very end. Snark is interpersonal junkfood: […]
Sing Us The Song
I’m frightened by all that’s happening. I remember reaching for my mother when I was scared. It was her lullabies that comforted me. Now I want to fight: give me someone to blame. But that’s not the way. It’s like drinking poison and hoping that the other person gets sick. With a dis-membering fear, a […]
