This short monthly post is meant to be a postscript to a longer essay I wrote nine years ago, which focuses on two “big picture” aspects of Thanksgiving. I just re-read it, and I don’t think I’d change a word. Please take a minute to read the earlier post, Why Thanksgiving?, and then come back. Within the framework of that larger perspective, in November, 2024, I now want to be specific about several people and events for which I am particularly thankful. Although our large family has some...
This post has two audiences. For those who’ve known my writing for a while, I’m simply adding my mostly-monthly blog posts to a new platform: Substack, which has enhanced capabilities for organizing and communicating. If you don’t know me, I very much enjoy writing novels, because truth wrapped in a good story can be transformative; but I’m a slow writer and need a way to express my thoughts on current issues while slugging away on a novel’s intricacies. Hence, these posts, which began in 2010...
I want to share my thoughts on the two ends of a conceptual telescope I will call “Character." Not character like someone in a novel, but as with: The aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing. Qualities of honesty, courage, or the like; integrity. Reputation. Good repute. (Character Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com) At the larger end of the Character telescope is the big picture view of our nation's Virtue that everyone can see. For...
Several years ago my friend and teacher, Ken Boa, in his Wednesday morning Bible Study, mentioned how Moses, in Psalm 90, instructs us to number our days for a specific purpose. “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (v. 12) Just before that, in verse 10, Moses states that it’s reasonable to expect a lifespan of 70 years, but we might make it to 80. “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures;” After thinking about it a bit, and already...
We all occasionally reflect on the larger decisions we’ve made, and on how those choices have impacted us. Like where we decided to go to school, our first and subsequent career moves, and whom to marry. Today, at age seventy-five, I want to reflect on the decisions I’ve made and the opportunities I’ve followed that, at the time, seemed like no big deal; but then, looking back, have had a profound impact on virtually every aspect of my life, and on others, over a long period. I call those...
You are probably already familiar with a great quote attributed to Chuck Swindoll about Attitude, but it is worth repeating in these unusual times. “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or...
The Coronavirus Pandemic is a reminder that, along with terribly tragic outcomes in an increasing number of cases, this is also an incredibly blessed time in which we live--for many reasons, but particularly for recent advances in healthcare. (1) As I touched on in an earlier post, "Written In Stones", from the beginning of human existence until only eighty years ago, any of us could get a simple scratch or blister and then die from the resulting infection. There was no cure. None. That’s what...
I want to try to answer the question which I think vexes some people who know me or others like me: How can a relatively intelligent, traveled, thoughtful person be a Deplorable, clinging to my guns and my Bible? Or put another way, how can someone with a postgraduate education and nearly fifty years of business experience believe in the power of a relationship with his personal savior, and also be opposed to: Most ideas in the Democratic playbook, Sex outside marriage, Gay marriage, Abortion,...
I don’t know about you, but for a long time I’ve been in a “funk” over next year’s election. All of the Progressives are in lemming-like lock-step to expand access to abortions, thereby killing more innocent Americans; and to remove the President over actions which at this point seem no worse than what I believe their own side has undertaken. Before even considering the usual election issues like immigration reform or the deficit, I simply don’t see how I can support any of them because of...
I’m writing about a struggle I have almost daily: Focusing on deepening relationships vs accomplishing tasks on my To Do List. My friend and teacher, Ken Boa notes that there are two words in Greek which we translate into English as “time.” Both are ordained and controlled by God, but they are very different. Chronos means clock time. 24 hours in each day. How we schedule and measure. What I focus on as I look at what must be accomplished according to the plans and the goals I’ve set. Kairos...
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