you know, for the most part, i have a great deal of confidence in articulation. which is not to say that i am confident that i can always say things clearly or write things well, but in general i have a lot of confidence that i can, if pressed, get out what i need to […]

Strip away the bar and gun shopStrip away the lonesome telephone linesStrip away the faded blacktopStrip away these things, I’ll tell you what you’ll find A beautiful land with the hills all aroundWhere the mountaintops reach for the billowing cloudsThe touch of God’s hand is the whispering soundOf the wind through the leaves and the […]

Again we are off, this time to western Pennsylvania and Bill’s family. It’s a long and beautiful trip through endless West Virginia, and again it will be good to feel the road between here and that other home. The packing is mostly done. Tomorrow morning I will finish the last details, hopefully the children and […]

The other night our friend Jenny stopped by. This was nice. Bill and I both like Jenny tremendously, for both good and mundane reasons. She was Bill’s Right Hand during the months leading up to — and the day of — the Carolina Hope Fest. She has also been his Right Hand for the four? […]

A few weeks ago I was talking with a friend who, to be honest, is having a hard time. And it isn’t just that she’s having a hard time; it’s that she’s been having a hard time for a long time. A Long Time. And it isn’t just that it’s been a long time; it’s […]

Are nocturnal creatures only nocturnal because we are Not?

When you are six and a half, you might have two new front teeth that have just broken through the gums and are making their slow and steady descent. When you are six and a half, you might go to bed on Tuesday night with your animals in a bed of their own. Yes, you […]

If anyone should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I feel it could no otherwise be expressed than by making answer, “Because it was he; because it was I.” There is, beyond all my reasoning powers and beyond anything I can say about it in particular, I know not what inexplicable […]

They are in the air around me today, I guess. Tworivers and I had a nice conversation this late afternoon about The Great Gatsby, and I, of course, had to quote its last line, which is one of the Best Last Lines Ever: “And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly […]