Category: Uncategorized

At All Costs

My wife has a saying she came up with shortly after our first child was born, “When the going gets tough – lower your standards.” She had kept our house immaculate.  Everything in its place and a place for everything.  EXCEPT IN MY OFFICE. … Continue Reading “At All Costs”

When you pray, say…

Friday night bright lights.  The football team, their coaches and handlers trotted out onto the field of the stadium to the uproarious cheers of the hometown crowd.  There they all paused on the fifty-yard line, assembled in a clump, with bowed heads as their… Continue Reading “When you pray, say…”

Just Who is Neighbor?

Upon arriving home, I noticed a flyer that slipped out of our local Claremont newspaper.  It concerned a proposed development to provide housing for the neediest amongst us.  Larkin Place is to be a supervised residence providing housing for the unhoused.  Of course, some… Continue Reading “Just Who is Neighbor?”

For the Beauty of the Earth

Well, this Monday Jai and I head off to the East Coast to meet our future in-laws.  We have a couple of other stops on this excursion.  Washington, D.C. to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture, if we can get tickets, and… Continue Reading “For the Beauty of the Earth”

No Barriers

One of the ads I so like is from a sponsor of the PBS Nightly News.  It is from an old alma mater, California State University Long Beach.  Filmed at a graduation ceremony, students come processing by a row of huge block letters proclaiming,… Continue Reading “No Barriers”

I Have Heard of Your Faith

This tumultuous week-that-was began inauspiciously.  I opened the computer e-mail on Sunday evening to check it there were any pressing demands on my time, my money or my brain power.  What I found was not some scam from a Nigerian prince with millions of… Continue Reading “I Have Heard of Your Faith”

What A Difference a Day Makes

On any given day one’s prospects can change radically.  Any day can be the one that makes all the difference for the rest of one’s life.  Dinah Washington sang it so well: “What a difference a day makesTwenty-four little hoursBrought the sun and the… Continue Reading “What A Difference a Day Makes”

My Mama Done Tol’ Me

At some point my brother and I learned what most young fellows inevitably learn.  You can’t fool Mom.  The lady has eyes in the back of her head.  She had her ways of finding out just about any mischief we had gotten into.  She… Continue Reading “My Mama Done Tol’ Me”

Holy Mackerel

“Get that thing out of here.  It smells to high heaven!”  Or something to that effect, my mom was yelling.  There I proudly stood at the kitchen door with a gunny sack of fish I had caught that day. Growing up in Long Beach,… Continue Reading “Holy Mackerel”

We Can Do This

I used to have a little Bishop’s Miter cactus in a small blue pot.  Actually, it was our son Christopher’s plant.  It’s now in a new home in our relandscaped side yard of drought-tolerant plants.  And every time this year, as Easter approaches, what… Continue Reading “We Can Do This”