Privacy and Publicity
A few months ago, I posted thoughts (“Publicity, Celebrity, and Salvation”) about my continuing effort to understand how our longing for a more perfect form of action, encapsulated in the …
Birthright
“Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I …
Dear Ms. Constitution
In the crazy house of mirrors that we find ourselves in these days I fell into a fantasy that I was a small-town newspaper editor who received this letter in …
The Assault on our Republic
With my fellow citizens I have struggled with the anger and projected grief that arises in the wake of yet another mass shooting that tears open the raw wounds of …
Appalachian Melancholy
I am preparing to participate in a gathering commemorating the life and work of Kathryn Stripling Byer, whose teaching, poems, and spirit will resonate in these hills for many decades …
Reconciling History and Hope
I grew up not far from Charlottesville and still remember visiting Monticello as a boy, fascinated by the gadgets of our third President. The decayed remnants of slavery and the …
Dance with Me
Each summer the mountains here resound with music and dancing. In case this sounds familiar, I’ve written about this before. Folkmoot dancers from around the world come to our little …
What about the Stuff?
Except for the extreme ascetics among us we all have STUFF. I have a friend who capitalizes the word, just to remind us that STUFF occupies a liminal space between …
A New Processional Cross
I was recently asked to make a new cross for the Sanctuary at our church. I was told it should be able to stand as a focal point in worship …
My Cyprus Memoir is Available
Regular readers will know, through my earlier reports on our travels to Cyprus in 2012 and 2015, that this has been five years in the making. By using an e-book …
Publicity, Celebrity, and Salvation
Like some other people my age, I have been trying to sift through my thoughts and writings to trace the threads that have become the enduring fabric of my way …
Go Forth in Joy
From time to time my interest in prayers and litany for worship has led me into song, at least the words if not some efforts at a melody. Scott Taylor, …
Pay Attention
As I was working over my recent poems I became more aware than ever that they arise from the simple act of paying attention. If I’m asked again about what …
Crystal Bridges
A stunning museum of American art in the Ozarks of northwestern Arkansas? Well, get used to it. We tried to visit the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in 2014 …
The Great River
Here the Rio Grande is dry a hollow bone without the marrow a sleeping body without blood waiting patient as the ceaseless wind blowing tumbleweeds …