Essay

I began my day yesterday talking about pastoral care in the midst of grief and loss with twenty-nine seminary students. I ended my day reading articles about Joe Paterno, Jerry Sandusky, and the toppling of the iconic establishment known as…

As an "immigrant" to the Reformed tradition, I have often found that some of the "natives" in the tradition resonate with Chaim Potok's The Chosen--a staple of high school curricula (or at least the Chrisitan school curricula with which I'm…

I was staying in a hotel on one of those ubiquitous suburban strips—big box stores, gas stations, car lots, the usual suspects of restaurants.   Figuring it would be circuitous and challenging to drive the quarter mile to the restaurant on…

InvitationMary OliverOh do you have timeto lingerfor just a little whileout of your busyand very important dayfor the goldfinchesthat have gatheredin a field of thistlesfor a musical battle,to see who can singthe highest note,or the lowest,or the most expressive of…

A girl can’t spend every minute thinking deep thoughts and reading classic literature, so on occasion I flop on the couch and watch myself a little fantasy TV.  I am not talking about cheesy Arthurian drama (though I groove on…

Ten years ago maybe, my in-laws, then in their eighties, told us that they had simply mentioned to the pastor, as if in passing, that occasionally they'd like to sing the old songs once, too. They're not pushy people, believe me. The…

They came from places called Sekitsch and Feketitsch, Werbass and Torscha—villages, towns, and cities in the Batschka and Banat. If you ask them in what country they were born some will reply Yugoslavia, while others will say Hungary. In some…

I’ve got a confession: I love Halloween Halloween invites us to imagine who we want to be and dress up as whatever we envision. This day gives us the permission to expand our ideas of ourselves and dress up as…

If you have been paying even moderate attention to the media of late, then you know the huge amount of attention that has been paid to Steve Jobs since his untimely death.   Some of the attention has gone to Walter…

I spent a day with the legendary basketball coach John Wooden once. He was 93-years-old at the time. Yes, I know that I am shamelessly namedropping in the first-ever Perspectives blog post, but give me the benefit of the doubt…