Our Notional Nation

Hello from the Acre, sitting yet again in front of the computer, It has been a beautiful week, enticing us to believe Spring is here, but it is mid-March, and my past experience, from a variety of places, has taught me to avoid the enticement. Take pleasure in the days offered, get outside and manageContinue reading “Our Notional Nation”

Being an American . . . Not as Easy as Perhaps We Thought

Hello from my study on the acre, As I grew up in the early 6os and into the 70s, certainly our country was coming of age, so to speak. We were in a different world and the United States was understood quite differently than it had been certainly up through the First World War andContinue reading “Being an American . . . Not as Easy as Perhaps We Thought”

Why argument/debate/questions are crucial

Hello from my office (at home that is), It is almost 10:30 in the evening and I am beginning a new post. First that is abnormally late for me to begin, and I am quite sure I will not finish, but I have also just finished dinner, which is also uncharacteristically late for me becauseContinue reading “Why argument/debate/questions are crucial”

Out of the Depths, O Lord . . .

Hello from my study, There are a multitude of thoughts, emotions, concerns, and fears as I reflect on the pictures of our national Capitol yesterday. I do not mean that to be a political statement, it is a statement of one single individual, a former pastor, a Marine Corps veteran, a person who has RepublicanContinue reading “Out of the Depths, O Lord . . .”

The Beauty of Art: It Reveals Our Humanity

Hello from my study, It seems a bit more than ironic that has I have spent the last 5 days writing all day long, finishing a chapter for publication that I would need to write, but I do. My brain is fried with sentences about gender, chronicity, stigma, IBDs, CRC, hegemonic masculinity, and the listContinue reading “The Beauty of Art: It Reveals Our Humanity”

When We Seem More Broken than Not

Hello from my office, It is not by accident that I am writing this on the day following the 245th Anniversary of the foundation of the United States Marine Corps and on Veterans’ Day at a few minutes from the 11th hour, on the 11th day, of the 11th month. I am hurting. I amContinue reading “When We Seem More Broken than Not”

To the Third and Fourth Generation

Hello from my office, I have been grading and chatting with students trying to help them manage a major paper, one much longer than many have ever written or even fathomed in high school. While I do not think it is a difficult assignment, I am well aware that this is not comparing apples toContinue reading “To the Third and Fourth Generation”

A Walking, Breathing Oxymoron

Hello from my office on a dreary and chilly pre-Apocalyptic Friday, As I write this, I am doing it to clear my mind, to make sense of the nonsensical, to put my trust in something larger than myself, which is always needed, and to create the possibility that I might be able to focus aContinue reading “A Walking, Breathing Oxymoron”

Maintaining Civility in our Uncivil Country

Hello from a dining room table. Two weeks from tonight most of us will be glued to some sort of media trying to understand which person we will call our President for the next four years. Of course, the expectation that we might find something reminiscent of 2000 is relatively high, and the worry aboutContinue reading “Maintaining Civility in our Uncivil Country”

May Day . . . then and now

Hello on a Wednesday afternoon from my office, When I was growing up as a child in Northwest Iowa, May 1st was a celebratory day. We had a May festival at school and we practiced dances and we had bleacher set up at my school yard and parents came to watch their sons and daughtersContinue reading “May Day . . . then and now”