When I was little, my grandma called me her “joy boy.” To be fair, I was the first grandchild, so I had that going for me. Grandma taught Sunday School to little kids and even drove a few to Emannuel Baptist Church. Their parents didn’t have the means, but Grandma cared about them and set … Continue reading A Lenten Meditation
Tag: family
Categories
“There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary numbers and those who do not.” Math jokes aside, anyone who thinks there are only two kinds of people in the world is mistaken, if not delusional. It might sound good to divide the world into two parts – saints and sinners, … Continue reading Categories
Control and Chaos
The father was right. There must be rules around the house. Children must obey their parents. Speak when spoken to. Come when they’re called. Pick up their toys. Clean their room. Do their homework. Don’t run in the house. Do their chores. Don’t talk back to their mother. Eat their vegetables. Ask for permission. Stop … Continue reading Control and Chaos
Of Good Dogs and Bad
Our daughter brought Sasha into our lives. The guys who originally owned her realized they didn’t have time to raise a puppy, so our daughter agreed to take her. But she was off to college, which meant that we would be raising her until summer. Sasha had the soft fur of a Golden Retriever with … Continue reading Of Good Dogs and Bad
Notes on The Journey
An old friend called me a few days ago to tell me he was diagnosed with dementia. We are about the same age, so it was not hard to imagine myself in his shoes. Except he is a cancer survivor. 15 years ago he underwent a horrendous array of treatments – chemo therapy, a bone … Continue reading Notes on The Journey
Constants
In the middle of winter, someone crashed into one of the low brick walls that mark the entrance to the neighborhood. Significant damage was done, but nobody seemed to know anything about the accident. For a few months, I suspected that a snowplow had hit the wall, but the county office couldn’t confirm my conjecture. … Continue reading Constants
Loss
My Dad came from a generation that rarely shared emotions. I don’t recall him ever telling me, “I love you.” I remember he cried on three occasions – when his mother died, when Mom died, and when my brother had a stroke. His emotions did become more apparent in the last decade or so of … Continue reading Loss
The End of the Line
I carry a hazy childhood memory of waving goodbye to my father at an airport. As a salesman, he often left home – and returned a week or so later. I got used to daddy leaving and always coming back. At the time, I had no idea that some kids had fathers who left and … Continue reading The End of the Line
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