Grace in the dark

Grace in the dark

In his little devotional book Wishful Thinking, Frederick Buechner says we should not look to Scripture for answers first of all, but instead listen to the questions it asks. Good advice. Certainty is a luxury the human race can ill afford. Conviction that “we” have answers and “they” do not has created a good deal…

Post Easter Reflection

Post Easter Reflection

Trauma and loss are ancient and familiar realities for life on our planet, and no one is exempt from the cost they exact. Marilynne Robinson talks about lacrimae rerum – the tears in things

Lament at the end of summer

Lament at the end of summer

Once my seven-year-old granddaughter, upon watching a pod of orcas circle and devour a seal, remarked, “Why is the earth such a bad place?”

Why don’t they like us?

Why don’t they like us?

“I used to be a Christian, but then I became a forensic pathologist.” So says a colleague of detective Kurt Wallander, main character in a dark gritty British television series bearing his name.

What did you just say?

What did you just say?

People who read novels often talk about skipping the descriptive parts so it won`t take so long to get to the plot. Some of my students used to apply the term “run-on sentence” to any statement that was longer than subject-verb-object.

Reality Check

Reality Check

I am in my seventh decade. I live alone. I have plenty of time now to do things there was no time for when I had a spouse, a family and a job. I have the luxury of retrospection. I read, no longer for my work, but for pleasure and learning