Is this how a member of a bomber crew felt upon return from a WWII mission upon sighting the cliffs of Dover and England below? Maybe. At the end of a visit to my home town, I hope to board the American Airlines jet shortly, for transport back to Chicago. A visit to my…
We have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time— when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest…
Our first day in town featured dinner at Dame’s Chicken and Waffles on Main Street. The rather small restaurant-bar delivers on it’s promise. “Southern fried perfection meets sweet European decadence.” The menu reflects an era when jazz musicians would finish their gigs in New York City. They’d find a Chicken and Waffles joint open till…
By noon I will be boarding an American Airlines plane at O’hare. After enclosure, sardine like, in the silver-aluminum tube, with good fortune, I will emerge two hours later in North Carolina. I expect the air to be warmer and scented with pine needles. The people will be vaguely familiar with respect to voice…
Just felt like considering the message, or better, the zeitgeist of this song. I don’t usually mourn the passing of an actor, more than just making a mental note of their absence. With the passing of Patrick Swayze in 2009 it was different. I felt that an artist of rare ability, a dancer, had…
Reno is a friend who stops by to say hello nearly every morning, as I contemplate my computer screen at Starbucks. A bit of small talk is exchanged and sometimes a good story. Reno with a wry smile and irony in his voice told me of an experience on the job yesterday. He works…
Did you ever read about a frog Who dreamed of bein’ a king And then became one Well except for the names And a few other changes If you talk about me The story’s the same one… Heard this song played today and I knew that I had to write about it. It is…
Walked around the block early this morning. The early spring thunderstorm left the ground wet and the grass emerald green. I believe in the concept of resurrection, that newness seemingly comes out of nothing: ex nihilio. After winters deep sleep, the emergence of green, a constellation of tiny leaves covering the apple tree, robins…
How do I not ruminate on the meaning of Easter? Raised a fundamentalist Christian, I was and am shaped by the stories of the Bible, especially those of Christ’s passion. The facts of the story are grim, and the happy ending has been added by interpretation, a after-the-fact postscript. Life is like that though. …
Good Friday, two days before Easter Sunday is the day of commemoration of Jesus’s death. There are various of interpretations of Jesus’s death by Christians. The essential idea is that Jesus was a substitute, he died as a stand-in for everyone else. The word sacrifice is typically used. The ancient religious understanding of sacrifice…
