All Purls. No Swine.
Yes, it's a marvelous conundrum: I remember Christian teachers telling me long ago that I must hate a bad man's actions but not hate the bad man: or, as they would say, hate the sin but not the sinner...I used to think this a silly, straw-splitting distinction: how could you hate what a man did… Continue reading On Hatred: What Did CS Lewis Have To Say?
Lord. Here we are, halfway through January already. And it's still Christmas in my house, although I've started to take the decorations down. Won't be long until I'm regretting doing so. Especially the tree. Because, soon enough, it'll be time to start all over again. And if I'd just left everything up, I wouldn't have… Continue reading January 15
Beautiful morning today, down here on the farm, although a fleeting recollection of the old saying, "Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning," did run through my mind. (True to form, the rain starts tonight.) But my first thought took me back to my high-school days, and the first time I read The Odyssey end-to-end… Continue reading Rosy-Fingered Dawn
I've written, every now and then, about my New Year's practice of trying to sum up the year that's passed in just twelve words, one for each month. I'm not much of a diarist, other than in the ways I write my life here and on Ricochet, and as a rule I try not to… Continue reading Twelve Little Words–2022
Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering 'it will be happier'--Alfred, Lord Tennyson Crimenutely. In my search for a suitable quote of the day for New Year's Eve, I stumbled over a little-known work (at least, I didn't know about it, which makes it little-known in my book) by Alfred, Lord… Continue reading Two from Tennyson for New Year’s Eve
My mother-in-law, Geraldine Zbozny, died fifteen years ago today. Here's a reprise of a post I've published annually for the past few years: It’s been fifteen years since my mother-in-law passed away, and perhaps it’s time to tell a bit of her story. Geraldine Virginia was born on May 13, 1918. She’d have been 104… Continue reading A Mother-In-Law For the Ages
“I have to be seen to be believed”–Queen Elizabeth II The only British monarch of my lifetime died today. She was crowned in June 1953, slightly more than a year before I was born. I was named after her, “Elizabeth,” and–for my middle name–after my grandmother who was to die when I was only a… Continue reading We Saw Her. We Believed. And Now She’s Gone.
Thus spoke President Harry Truman of Ernest Taylor Pyle. Ernie Pyle was born 122 years ago today, on August 3, 1900 in Dana, Indiana. He died not quite 45 years later, on April 18, 1945, in the Iejima Okinawa Prefecture of the Empire of Japan, killed in action while doing what he loved. Having missed… Continue reading “He deserves the gratitude of all of his countrymen”
Please forgive me. This is, largely, a re-post from many years ago, in the Ricochet group writing category “heroes.” I’ve changed it a bit. But the sentiment’s the same. I offer it today on what would have been my mother's 94th birthday: A few weeks ago, when I signed up for this post, I’d never… Continue reading Mother’s Day Hero: My Mum
A bit less that four months ago, on February 12, 2022 (17+ weeks ago), I ordered some bathroom fixtures from the California Faucet Company with the understanding that the turnaround time to delivery would be somewhere between four and six weeks. They're supposed to be top-tier, made-in-the-USA, products which are available--sensitively--to those working on home… Continue reading Hello–California Faucet Company–I’m Still Waiting