I wrote yesterday about someone in my life who is “real,” but it would be a mistake for anyone to think that’s an easy thing to accomplish. We say that so easily, don’t we? “Be real.” “Get real.” “He’s just not the real thing.” ..as though it were natural. As though it were the norm…
Author: James Riley - page 48
Mary and I celebrate 26 years of marriage today, and there has never been another woman to interrupt that matrimony, with the possible exception of Siri — who we both enjoy abusing. We were on our final approach to IKEA Covina this afternoon, the only Southern California establishment selling candles in bulk for keepers of..
Yesterday, somewhere south of Santa Barbara I slipped on headphones and pulled up The Ventures on my Iphone. Mary was driving, and she was easily doing 75. The great blue plate of the Pacific Ocean stretched out on my right, penned in by the blonde-and-black, two-tone arc of the sand and the highway. I’m 54,..
To the makers of the Fleetwood “Jamboree Sport” recreational vehicle: I’ve debated how to begin this diplomatically, but perhaps I should just ask the question straight out of the gate and be done with it. What did I ever do to you? I don’t believe we’ve even been properly introduced. Yes, years and years ago,..
I wrote earlier that lots of well meaning, big-hearted Christian folks are anxious to let us know: they do not approve of “hot,” when describing a daughter of God. A Christian woman is a daughter of the King. She is a princess. She is special. She is precious. She is the mother of your children…
Cliven Bundy — American Hero I’m trying to imagine the life of a rancher, and I’m coming up short. Mind you, I have a bit more experience than most. I once woke my wife up at 2 AM, on a 37 degree February morning, to help me round up three Jersey cows that had broken..
“But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying: ‘We played the flute for you,And you did not dance; We mourned to you, And you did not lament.’ Matthew 11:16-17 I have a street-preacher friend who is a tad dispensationalist, a..
I Mix It Up With a Hero… Well, yes, of course I’m addicted to Facebook. Duh.. If you could have immediate access to the 40 or 50 most interesting people you know, and read the edited, best-self, versions of their lives, tease them while they’re at work, work out thorny problems of theology, culture..
Somewhere, on a Sunday morning, people are filing out of a chapel after the service and the pastor spots a teenage boy, waiting by himself for his parents to finish socializing. There’s an exchange that goes something like this: Pastor: “How are you, Jeff?” Jeff: “Fine.” The young man fidgets, looks off in the..
The deck outside our kitchen window is newly finished, and it aches for teak furniture of some sort, and striped cotton pillows, and iced buckets of chardonnay and the barbecue simmer of steak and green peppers in olive oil. Music would be nice–and friends, of course–and one of those well-buttered conversations that sizzles on..