I grew up in farm country South Dakota, where I heard a lot of Johnny Cash. I loved his voice. It sounded like a rusted muffler, but it moved me. So I’ve listened with interest and pleasure to Johnny’s daughter, singer, song-writer Rosanne Cash who’s earned her own place in American music. When someone offered […]
The Sick Cat Syndrome
I have a sick cat this morning. I sensed it last night. Usually about dinner time both cats start circling the kitchen and yowing. That’s when we give them their canned food treat, and they never let us forget that chow time for us is treat time for them. But not last night. Neither one […]
Heaven’s Diner
To live is to be awake. Both feet on the floor. Focus. But most of us move through life in a kind of half stupor. We’re going through the motions, but an android could do as much. Life pulls us into a joyless cycle. We do lots of things (some over and over, day after […]
The Eagle and the Badger
“There’s only one thing worse than not getting what you want—getting it.” We’ve all seen it happen. The woman who angles for the top job, gets it, but the toll it takes wipes out her happiness. The man who leaves his wife and family for the “perfect” new woman, only to wake the next morning […]
The Most Premeditated of Murders
Tonight, Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed by the state of Georgia. He was convicted of the 1989 murder of a police officer. But twenty years later, seven of the nine “eye witnesses” have recanted their testimony, some citing police pressure. Even some death penalty advocates have declared that this case is too shaky […]
Heaven’s Point System
Yesterday I stood in the center aisle of my church, a crucifer standing before me and two torch bearers flanking me on either side, and I read the Gospel story of the workers in the vineyard. A landowner hires a group of workers early in the morning and agrees to pay them the “usual daily […]