"It was one of those surreal things, like seeing a UFO. When you are a person who already thought that maybe you should be dead because life was so bad to you, I thought this could be a premonition."
Read MoreToday I got a notice from one of the online family tree sites. It, for the third or fourth time, let me know that a good friend was one of my missing family members.
Read MoreIt was unimaginable until recently that any president would start an unprovoked war. We are currently engaged in a war for no politically viable reason, attacking people who did not attack us. We've been fighting that war for 10 years, sacrificing the lives of our youth and those of many innocent Afghans civilians for 10 years.
Read MoreIt was beyond our wildest imaginings that a presidential candidate would boast of the benefits of separating church and state, and state succinctly that multicultural America must be celebrated as a Christian nation.
Read MoreThis animosity has been a poor model for our children, shows a limited understanding of democracy (democracy demands that once you lose an argument, you give it up to the majority), has frightened our lenders and international partners and has already impacted the financial markets.
Read MoreMy body is a quickly changing machine. Kind of a magnificent one in many ways, but changing too fast for my liking.
Read MorePresident Obama just spoke to the nation about the debt ceiling and asked us each to write to our Congress persons to support a balanced approach to raising it.
Read MoreI am just beginning to read Patti Smith's Just Kids, the romantic, lyrical story of her great romance and creative connection with Robert Mapplethorpe in the days before either became famous.
Read MoreMy father shakes hands for me. For the last seven years I have been plagued by a rather exotic neurologic affliction that causes me considerable pain upon certain kinds of touch.
Read MoreWe learned that a very media savvy man, one who had intensely and passionately championed the health care bill and was on the fast track to becoming the mayor of New York, had significant adolescently pursued insecurities, had made overtures through multiple embarrassing tweets to women who – with the exception of the banalities strewn through these silly messages – initially been enthralled with his wit, charm and good looks.
Read MoreFor the past few months I have been working on special projects for my father. One of them is a collection of his sermons and talks that will be in a repository of the works of the country’s most respected preachers.
Read MoreI read Andy Himes book, The Sword of the Lord: The Roots of Fundamentalism in an American Family, with great interest.This fascinating, searing and brutally honest memoir examines Christian fundamentalism through the lens of Andy’s family and his own life.
Read MoreThis most wonderful video of the poem - If I Should Have A Daughter - expresses all of the sentiments of women toward their prospective daughters or the girl children that they love as daughters.
Read MoreMy friend, Rev. Wendell L. Griffen, pastor of the New Millenium Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, wrote this reflection on the US killing of Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011.
Read MoreSomething remarkable happened today. A year's worth of hard work at the gym paid off in an amazing way.
Read MoreOn one recent chilled and sunny day as I walked along the Cedar River, I passed by a man walking his dog. The dog was small and of indeterminate breed.
Read MoreI am over my parent's home, having just finished helping them prepare for a holiday party for my mother's women's "circle", a church charitable group.
Read MoreI went swimming last Saturday and saw something I have never seen before and expect never again to see: a prayer meeting in the hot tub.
Read MoreI, like much of the country, have been listening intently to the discussion about the new TSA security process. In many ways I am of two minds about it.
Read MoreI have a few ideas about how to keep Obama in office…
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