If you thought the Old Testament was scary, take another look at the New One.. Mob stories on television don’t bother me. They reassure me. I look at the lives of Tony Soprano or Ray Donovan, and I think, “I’m a buttoned-up Mennonite by comparison.” When someone asked me if crime drama frightened me, I..
Easter, Roundabout In a few weeks, Lord willing, my wife and I will take a first class vacation across the country in celebration of being married thirty years. I look forward to this, inordinately, in much the same way I looked forward to school starting in the fifth grade, and the yearly ritual of new..
The Content of Our Character? I find this startling: polite company, these days, apparently allows you to make sweeping, racist commentary about white men over fifty. A few years ago, I thought this was just the shrew-cackle of some far left feminists with daddy issues, engaging in the sort of edgy racism that would go..
You can ask, I guess.. Against my better judgment, I engaged a young “walk-out” correspondent on Facebook. I couldn’t help noticing a striking similarity to a conversation I had with an “Occupy” couple a few years ago. In both cases, the young, earnest protesters were unapologetic for having no idea what they were talking about. ..
Startling Simplicity I tend to superficially over-think religious subjects. I say “superficially” because my attorney friend, Tom Eastmond, reminded me about David Hume’s “is-ought” problem, and when you get under the hood with the metaphysical uber-thinkers, it humbles you. You get that “nothing new under the sun” feeling. Someone has already seen this here thing…
The church was new, the crowd was large — there were 1200 people there if there were five. Everyone was anxious to start, so I took the liberty of stepping through the french doors of a courtyard suite where the bride was being prepared, and then I took the bad news out to the guests: ..
A Short Story My theory is we all want to be one of the chosen people, so don’t get all judgmental about this. I’m guessing you’re the same: You got pledged by the Dekes instead of that vaguely criminal but very cool fraternity, the guys who brought hip flasks and peyote to midterms, the ones..
A Short Story The Love Pool It was becoming a scandal of mixed bathing proportions. The Horner kid – the cocky one, the youngest one, not the slow-witted older brother, but the good-looking kid, the one with the physique and the guitar skills and the amiable, effortless presence (you have to be careful with young..
Confusing Movie Dream Trailers.. Somber music. Winter. A man examines a cottage bedroom with an empty crib by the window. He sits on the bed, alone, and puts his head in his hands. Summer: he is running across a meadow with his wife, a child in his arms. Winter. Alone again, he looks down the..
A Short Story I spent the evening afraid of his face. Brother Hendricks wore the pits and the furrows of his adolescence; his sons had that sort of pomegranite acne that might have made lesser young men more recluse, but they plunged into the fray without apology – basketball players, musicians, bearers of girlfriends to..
