Flowers and Other Living Things

I never used to like gardening. The extent of my forays into the yard consisted of mowing the lawn and raking leaves. A friend of mine who is an avid gardener and the possessor of a large, wooded plot of land in constant need of tending, got me to reevaluate my whole attitude toward plants. Now I love fussing around in the garden. Planting flowers, pruning bushes, hedges, and trees provides a great sense of satisfaction. Plus it gives me a good excuse to smoke a cigar.

Nothing is quite so lovely as sitting in the shade, listening to the trickle of water in the pond, the merry music of the birds, the sighing of the leaves as the breeze wanders through the trees—hey, that rhymes!—and contemplating how much God must love His creation. They say gardening is good for the soul, and I agree.

You know what though? The most important thing I’ve learned from gardening is that living things always respond best to gentleness and patience. Just look at this little calendula. When I got hold of it, it was in a tiny pot, overwatered, and dying. I stuck it in my favorite nursery pot, let it dry its feet, fed it, and waited to see what would happen. Just a couple weeks ago, I checked on it and here’s what I saw…

Continue reading “Flowers and Other Living Things”

Oldies Friday

It’s cold and snowy here in the upper Midwest, so to cheer us up for the weekend, let’s spin some disks !

The 70’s were years rightly maligned for many things—Vietnam, Watergate, the gremlingas crisis, polyester, the Gremlin (Yours was cool though Mike M! Even if it was brown and the heater didn’t work).

But at least there was some good music. As Homer Simpson famously said,

Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It’s a scientific fact.

Let’s go back there now, shall we?

So, What?

In a recent article for Salon Magazine, Mary Elizabeth Williams writes,

Of all the diabolically clever moves the anti-choice lobby has ever pulled, surely one of the greatest has been its consistent co-opting of the word “life.” Life! Who wants to argue with that? Who wants be on the side of … not-life? That’s why the language of those who support abortion has for so long been carefully couched in other terms. While opponents of abortion eagerly describe themselves as “pro-life,” the rest of us have had to scramble around with not nearly as big-ticket words like “choice” and “reproductive freedom.” The “life” conversation is often too thorny to even broach. Yet I know that throughout my own pregnancies, I never wavered for a moment in the belief that I was carrying a human life inside of me. I believe that’s what a fetus is: a human life. And that doesn’t make me one iota less solidly pro-choice.

Continue reading “So, What?”

We Have Met the Enemy…

…and it’s NOT us!

Mother and Child by Pino Daeni
Mother and Child
by Pino Daeni

In a recent interview, Sir David Attenborough told the Radio Times,

We are a plague on the Earth. It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now.

Whoa! Hold on there Sir David! A plague? Really?

Stanley Frank Musial, R.I.P.

Stan “The Man” Musial died this weekend. He was 92. No need to go into his career or stats–those are only a small part of what the man is and was. He played every game–except while serving his country in the Navy during WWII–was consistent, dependable, professional, and a real gentleman. Something very rare in professional sports.

The best compliment I ever received in my whole life was the one our team doctor paid me after my very last football game. While at a private party with teammates and coaches, he shook my hand and told me that I always reminded him of Stan Musial. He told me that Stan was never flashy, he just went about his job dependably, and with a good attitude. His teammates could always count on him to get a hit.

That’s a wonderful epitaph for a life well-lived. Bon voyage Mr. Musial. Now that you’re in heaven, pray for us and bat us in!

Banned Words, Part Un

cromulentSo I was traveling again yesterday. As I rounded the bottom of Lake Michigan, which for those of you who’ve never done it is excruciatingly un-scenic, I looked for some sort of distraction.

Instead of doing something productive, like learning to speak Balinese or dictating another chapter of my book, I turned on sports radio. For two and a half hours, I heard nothing but the endless repetition of the Manti Te’o story interspersed with reaction to the Bears’ new head coach.

It was somewhere around Chesterton, Indiana that I snapped. Can we all agree to stop using the word “narrative” for a couple hundred years? Huh? Can we?