It’s the season for Christmas specials, though some karmic dissonance or a disruption in the space-time continuum resulted in one network running “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” a week before Thanksgiving. Do you think some advertisers were a little anxious to start priming the pump? I suppose it’s all harmless; I mean, it’s not like [...]
It’s Thanksgiving week and I’m busy finishing up projects at home and work before jumping in the car with the wife and kids and Ben, heading for the family gathering a good ten hours away. As I reflect on the things I’m thankful for, I must include those of you who have made it a [...]
Some have asked what kind of of writer I’d like to be, and my answer is, “Well compensated.” Fact is, I’m still trying a few things out but there does seem to be a lucrative market for Romance fiction. Sure, I wouldn’t want to put my real name on it (speaking as a guy who’s [...]
by the Night Writer (About “Filings”:) Filings is an ongoing section of this blog where the posts focus specifically on issues of Christian life. The name comes about because “filings” are the natural by-product of Proverbs 27:17: “as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” (hide) One morning last week I was walking the [...]
by the Night Writer Last week a friend of mine died of cancer, the second friend I’ve lost this summer and both too young. Last week was also my great aunt Essie’s funeral. She was the last of my grandfather’s siblings and our last living connection to the early years of the last century. Alva, [...]
by the Night Writer When my wife became a police chaplain we knew we could expect some tense calls in the middle of the night since chaplains are commonly called on for death notifications. We didn’t expect that the first call she received would be for someone we know. Joe was the kind of guy [...]
Buffy Holt writes of a childhood memory: Iaeger, West Virginia. Nineteen seventy nine. The old bus terminal that use to sit somewhere along the river bank. Maybe next to Sears & Roebuck? Maybe not. Maybe Sears & Roebuck came after it was already gone? I can’t remember. But I do remember the terminal; the diner [...]
by the Night Writer As you read this I will have completed my 50th year on this planet. Yes, I know, hard to believe – at least it is for me. Somehow in my mind’s eye I still kind of picture myself as I was in the 1980s, though that is a man my children [...]
One of the reasons I went down to Missouri last week was to pick up my father’s pick-up truck, which is now my pick-up truck. It’s a 1998 Dodge Dakota extended cab (V6, 2WD), and the odometer didn’t turn 51,000 miles until I was somewhere in Iowa on the drive home. It’s in great shape, [...]
The third in a series that is part writing exercise and part year-end reflection, about the “balms” in my life, inspired by the book, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. In Gilead, the Rev. John Ames reflects back over a long life that, while full, did not include the opportunity to watch his children grow up. He [...]
