Summer Stage #13, Saturday 20 August 2016--What's new? Ask that question of the last 100 years and you could say: discovery of insulin (1922), television (1925), use of penicillin to treat infections (1942), desktop size personal computers (1974), and Pokémon (2016). Ask the question of last week and you get: unusual weather patterns with severe …
Summer stage #12, Saturday, 13 August 2016--I was about to shred an old notebook, part of my quest to dramatically reduce , , , let's call it . . . my paper stash. The notebook dates to 1973, from the first convention I attended of the Religious Public Relations Council, held in Indianapolis, Indiana. My cryptic notes (with the photo) put me …
Summer stage #11, Sunday 7 August 2016--How does one pray for those who wobble and fall? Those who teach others with kindness, firm guidance, and love? For peace? Those suffering the scourge of war and calamities of nature? Women and children who suffer domestic violence and homelessness? Those who are ill, their families and caregivers? Those …
Summer Stage #10, Friday 29 July 2016--We're into blueberry season. In the next weeks we'll take a day trip to South Haven, Michigan, to buy a couple more boxes--and enjoy a walk along Lake Michigan. One question I'll ask at the woman at the farm: "Does God still wash the blueberries?" I know she'll answer, "Yes." She always does. "Pop the lot …
Continue reading Surrounded by a season of bounty where God washes the blueberries
Summer Stage #9, Saturday 23 July 2016--That's Cyrano de Bergerac, the literary character, talking about his nose. Cyrano de Bergerac, the playwright, also had his literary character talk about an imaginative way he got to the moon. In July1969, I studied a play based on de Bergerac's writing. I was wrapping up studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, taking two drama courses. …
Summer Stage #8, Saturday 16 July 2016--What to do with the treasures you've collected over the years? Enriched by, not captive to, possessions Our lives would be so much the poorer without the things we collect and prize. Having and creating things is part of what makes us human, said English artist Michael Landy. Yet, get …
Continue reading Clutter-control for collectables, including matchbooks and other stuff
Summer Stage #7, Sunday 10 July--Who doesn't love a weeded garden or flower bed? Sure, there'll be the odd person who'll speak up for all plants, including weeds, and that's good. But that's not the most popular position. No weeding would spell chaos, right? To hoe or not to hoe, now that's the question Let them …
Summer Stage #6, Saturday 2 July 2016--A family of turtles stage their summer play. They climb on a log, and on each other, bask in the bright light, and on queue scoot off stage. A turtle is a reptile with a toothless, sheathed jaw, inhabiting a bony or cartilaginous shell. There are 18 turtle species in …
Continue reading Turtle, tortoise, and terrapin play their part
Summer Stage #5, Saturday 25 June 2016--Endings, beginnings, interludes, uncertainties--no one word captures the drama of change we see all around. Something better lies just around the corner, we say, if only we'd find that corner. Thankfully we do have heartening precedents and prospects. It's just the present that stumps us. One "sure thing" precedent for …
Continue reading For the love of birds, end of school, boat launch, UK Referendum . . .
Summer Stage #4, Sunday 19 June 2016--Who doesn't prefer natural sounds over noise? (One of our computers is getting repaired and that prevents me from downloading photos from this week. I'll add a few from the file to this shorter blog.) On Friday's walk we heard birds singing, water coursing over a creek dam, a breeze soughing through …
It's About Now 