How long, O Lord?
“Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this peop...
Category: reflections
Why Do I Keep a Library?
Hope. My father keeps a library. His father and mother had books and albums of photographs galore. My mother keeps a library. Her mother and father did not. Vis...
There
The howl of a dogRumble of a distant trainMournful hornBlue jay and crow Some morningsIt is not that the words flow,But that they are right enough.
Happenstance
I glanced up from my worklooked out the windowtherejust under Flight DL5471 Montreal to Laguardiahung a Monarchriding the updraftthen gliding on, above the tree...
Cowpasture v. U. S. Forest Service
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy notes that the Supreme Court of the United States has decided to hear Cowpasture River Reservation Association, et al. v....
Present Opportunities
There’s a sense of responsibility to the warm lump of soft cat in my lap which supersedes all other urges to rise from bed or chair. No contest between this com...
West Virginia Socker
My great-grandfather played soccer. The photograph above is of footballers from Valley Head, W. Va., at Conley Run. Another print of the same picture bears the ...
A New Kind of Credit Card?
A while back Apple announced plans to launch the Apple Card. It launched. A new kind of credit card. Created by Apple, not a bank. Issued by Gold...
On Attempting to Determine the Outcome through the Selection of Candidates
Just in from the Well-at-Least-It’s-Not-New-Jersey Dept., New York is redesigning its license plates again. If you are a New York State resident, you have...
Wrong Problem. Wrong Solution.
I intermittently listen to the news while driving, and heard several stories on NPR’s All Things Considered, regarding a raid by Immigration and Customs E...
Am I My Brother’s Keeper?
Sad morning here today. The youngest wondered if the Bigger Sister’s bunny was hungry and went to feed her, then came back to ask if she was dead. Yes, Bunny is...
No Phones on the Field
I have been using my iPhone as a stopwatch, and sometimes for background music, during soccer practice for a while now. Not anymore. Last Thursday one of my pla...
Skipping the Skip-nows
My children and I have been indulging in Screen-Free Week. We have read books, played games, and talked together. A week earlier they were binge-watching someth...
Translation
My daughter told me I should get some face lotion for my dry skin. I thought she would ask why I was crying, but the dry salt of my tears hid among the rough fl...
Impulses
ACTION REQUIRED, the e-mail demands, NOW. Give money. Sale! One day only! You might like this video. Sign our petition now or terrible things will happen! How w...
Exit Numbers
I recall being supremely irritated when Pennsylvania changed the exit numbers on I-81 from sequential to numbers based on the mileage. My complaint was that I n...
Serve the Computer
The work some of us have seems to me to exist mainly to serve the computer. That is, we’re not using the computers as tools in our work, but the computers...