I now understand why many people have religious experiences during a total solar eclipse. My almost-five son and I trekked up to the Tennessee/North Carolina border, camped in the Tellico River area. Plan “A” was to watch in a wonderful spot known as Whigg Meadow. After seeing the enormous crowds and multitudes of cars parked […]
Never a win unless Love is within
We never truly win without love within. A victory achieved with might or hate is a short-lived, shallow victory. Love is a vital element of our future, and seems to be in short supply in our current divisiveness. Love is not just something that happens when you are attracted to someone. When we come from a […]
To be an American?
What does it mean to be an American? We used to think that to be an easy question, back when a more narrow group of people were defining what is means: Apple Pie, baseball and Chevrolet (all of which can trace their roots to pre-America). Our country was never just a single monolithic plain white […]
The Times They Are a-Changin’
Twenty nine years ago today, I became a father of a wonderful daughter. Thirty nine years ago today, I was finishing up my second day at U.S. Air Force Basic Training. Fast forward, my son is now four years old, the same age I was when Bob Dylan released The Times They Are a-Changin’. Times are still […]
End of school, now the learning really starts…
In August of 2012, I embarked on a journey through seminary at Candler School of Theology. Yesterday, I finished my last class. I have so many people to thank for their tolerance, encouragement and support. There are people who believed in me when I did not believe in myself. It has been a long, strange […]
We are all in this together
Love is the willingness to see that we are all in this together. When we decide to come from a place of love, our vision of others expands. Instead of seeing our differences, we see connections. Instead of spending our energies on opposing each other, we have the strength and courage to find compromises and […]
God is the fact that the universe exists.
I do not exactly know what the title of this post means, but this thought occurred to me while I was studying the ideas of Spinoza tonight. Spinoza wrote of essences and modes and more complications that probably lose much in translation and post-modern framing of such issues. Spinoza was on the right track, but went wrong when he decided that there is nothing in creation worthy of awe. Anyway…
Rainy day: gray or white?
Upon opening the curtains this morning, son exclaims “raining.” I “affirmed” his observation with “yes, it’s gray.” He immediately corrected me, “it’s white!” The sky was quite bright. Such a light shade of gray that it was more appropriately considered white. It’s a matter of perspective. He has such a joy for each day that […]
A possible answer to gun violence
More gun control is opposed by many conservatives – the same people who often espouse market-driven solutions to problems. I say “fine.” Let’s implement a market solution to the gun problem here in the United States. . . .
What happens to energy?
We learn in physics that matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed – aka the First Law of Thermodynamics. Of course, matter can be converted to energy, as a tiny, tiny bit of matter gets destroyed in the fusion reactions happening inside our sun, with a huge resulting release of energy. Hence, life can exist on our planet 93 million miles away.