I turn down our tree-lined streets,the empty branches reaching skywardyearning skeletons just now beginningto show signs of new life, the groans ofcreation tuning up like an orchestrapreparing to play a new symphony. Yet, the trees have not been silent all winter.Their shadow song is harder, but a melodynonetheless. The strains of pain and silenceare not…
Brilliance with numbers is a curious thing. Paul Erdos, a Hungarian who died in 1996, used to travel the world and stop briefly at the offices and homes of fellow mathematicians. “My brain is open,” he would announce as, with uncanny intuition, he suggested a problem that, without realizing it, his host was already halfway…
A poem is like a ball park(or is the park like a poem?):some precise measurements –the height of the mound,the length of the base paths,the size of the ball –yet each park is its own,each outfield shaped byGreen Monsters and shortporches; the rules apply andno two are exactly the same. The batter who can hit…
I spent the weekend leading a youth retreat for a church in Virginia where a good friend pastors. The group of fifteen included kids from seventh through twelfth grade. They are kind, gentle, fun, and welcoming people. The weekend was scheduled to take the word retreat seriously: we have a few sessions and a great…
“A good storyteller speaks a melody; in conversation there is melody.” Mac McAnally, in conversation at Blue Rock) You’ve talked to me for yearsand I’ve listened. Does thatcount as conversation? I canstill see myself walking outof Baylor Records with a copyof Nothin’ But The Truth tuckedunder my arm; I spent the betterpart of the next…
I’ve been staring at the screen for awhile now, trying to think of a way to bring this year’s Lenten Journal to an end and I have not found them — at least, I haven’t found words of my own. What I have found are words I first heard on Bob Bennett’s record, First Things…
Holy Week has had to jockey for space on the calendar this week like an NCAA basketball player working to get in position under the basket. Monday was Saint Patrick’s Day. Tuesday, Barack Obama made his amazing speech on race in America in which, as John Stewart said, “talked to us as if we were…
One of the things my friend Mia have in common is we both spent part of our adolescence in Kenya. She sent me a link today to the NPR program, Speaking of Faith with Katrina Tippet, which was new to me because it doesn’t play on our local station. This week’s program revisits an interview…
My most significant Christmas present came from my whole family: sessions with a personal trainer. Since the first of the year, I’ve been seeing Chad (or as I like to call him, “Hanging Chad”) and he has been kicking my butt. The sessions are paying off because I have significantly less butt to kick. One…
Tomorrow is the official beginning of March Madness, or the NCAA Basketball Tournaments for both men and women. In our area basketball matters perhaps as much as anywhere on the planet and the shade of blue you wear to the game is a crucial decision (Duke – dark blue; UNC – light, or Carolina, blue)….