Point to ponder.

Earlier this summer, I told you about the experience I had reading and digesting the book Three Cups of Tea,which is about a lot of things but mainly about a man who had a life-changing experience and who went on to try and improve the lives of other people.  All summer long, the folks at [...]

I love Emma Thompson.

If you know me, you know I have these… dreams.
They frequently involve Emma Thompson.
I’m not quite sure entirely as to why that is.
Maybe stories about her like this one are part of the reason…
(MailOnline) July 23 – Six years ago she saved him from a life of unimaginable hardship, as a child soldier in [...]

What could have been.

I should be blogging today about President Obama’s (excellent) pick for the Supreme Court yesterday.  Or I could be blogging about The Zombie Veep Who Wouldn’t Die (Dick Cheney).  Or about North Korea and their new toys.  Or about the obscenity that was the more decision by California’s Supreme Court on Tuesday.   Or maybe even [...]

Thanks, Dad.

Richard Manning Austin, USN.

Swoon.

This will be of no interest to anyone but me, perhaps, but whatever.  It’s my blog and I’ll swoon if I want to.
Philadelphia MLS team named Union
(Philadelphia Inquirer) May 8 – To borrow a line from Woody Guthrie, they’re sticking with the Union.
That’s going to be the name of the region’s new pro soccer [...]

An open letter to the local chapter of the John Birch Society:

This letter is addressed to whoever left a leaflet stuck in my front door on Sunday,  April 26, the one advertising the showing of the racist, anti-immigrant propaganda film “Immigration Invasion” at (a location I will not discuss, on a date I will not disclose).  Ironically, I found it there after returning home from an [...]

What I thought about at Meeting yesterday.

Today is the tenth anniversary of the infamous massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
Yesterday was the fourteenth anniversary of the bombing of the Murrah federal Building in Oklahoma City.
Like you, I remember both of these days very clearly.  I remember first the feelings of bewilderment and confusion, then sadness, then anger, then total [...]

Slow down… and live.

Today we bury our friend and colleague, Amy, who died last Wednesday.   Amy was on her way to work at our school that morning when she pulled into an intersection after her light had turned green, and her car was plowed into by a large pick-up truck which was speeding through the red light.  The car [...]

A death in the family.

A very young, very, sweet, very dedicated, very enthusiastic, very wonderful colleague of mine was killed early this morning in a horrific  accident just a mile or so from our school.  She was on her way to work.  She entered an intersection after her light turned green and was hit by another car that was speeding [...]

Yes, I’m a bad Quaker.

I was recently visiting the blog of one of my favorite Quaker authors, J. Brent Bill, and I found a post that started out like this:

“So you’re a Quaker?” I get that question a lot since I travel a good bit schlepping my books. People always seem a bit intrigued — as if surprised any [...]

The blizzard of aught-nine.

Outside my front door.

The view up the street.

Out the back window.
Not very artsy-fartsy, but there it is.

Godspeed, Brian Dawkins.

The Philadelphia Eagles continued their slide into NFL irrelevence over this past weekend, by allowing Pro Bowler, future Hall of Famer, and heart-and-soul-of-the-franchise team leader Brian Dawkins to slip away in free agency.  He signed a five-year deal with the Denver Broncos.
Part of me gets this.  Dawk is 35 years old, which, let’s face it, [...]

SNOW DAY!

It is blizzarding here, still, this morning.  Worst storm we’ve had in years.  Looks like I’ll be stuck inside all day.  My snowblower refused to start, so I’ll have to use my back-up system: my offspring.
A good day for coffee, paperwork, and maybe a little reading.  Like, with a  real book.

Still curious after all these years…

Things about which I am wondering…*
- Why is it fair for J.C. Romero of the Philadelphia Phillies to receive a 50 game suspension  for using a legal nutritional substance (meaning he purchased it over-the-counter, and not in some dark, dingy gym locker room) that was not labeled as containing any substances banned by Major League [...]

Footprints, v. 2.0.

One night, a man had a dream.  
He dreamed he was walking along the beach with God.
(It might have been a beach in the Virgin Islands or Bermuda, but more than likely, it was at the Jersey shore.   We’ll go with that.)
Across the sky flashed the scenes that made up the man’s life. For [...]

Another f/Friend lost.

Pardon me if I sound like I’ve been punched in the stomach.  Yesterday was a rough day.
After a two-week absence, I went to Meeting yesterday, arriving much earlier than usual to help set up for our monthly covered dish, which was to be accompanied by the annual book sale sponsored by the Meeting’s library committee, [...]

Curiouser and curiouser…

Random stuff I’m wondering about today…
- Why do we give a fruity flying Fig Newton WHAT Rush (“I want him to fail”) Limbaugh thinks about our new President?  Kids, of course he does.  If Barack Obama manages to fix half of what’s on his plate right now in the next eight years (or maybe even better, [...]

Today’s dose of gratitude.

Sometimes when you travel, everything runs smoothly and everything goes fine, and you and Your Partner in All Things in Life have a fine old time and you come home rested and refreshed and invigorated to face the daily grind again.
And sometimes – hopefully not very often – things just blow up in your [...]

Tagged.

My favorite wild hippy chick, Liberality, has tagged me, which is kinda nice because I don’t get tagged very often.
Anyway, this meme has been around for a while.
Here goes…
The Rules:
1.  Link to the person who tagged you.
2.  Post the rules on your blog (done).
3.  Write six random things about yourself (see below).
4.  Tag six people [...]

Resolved:

- Complete my manuscript (one of them, anyway, whichever gets done first) and submit it to a publisher by summer’s end.
- Blog less often and better more often.
- Stop procrastinating so much, especially about that first one.
- Read more.  Including all four Gospels and more stuff by Martin Marcus Borg.
- Gym.  Thrice a week.  Religiously.
- [...]