DET GÅR TROLL I ORD

[English translation follows below] Tittelen på dette innlegget (engelsk: «There is a troll in the words») antyder at vi bør velge ordene våre med omhu, fordi det kan være en troll i det vi sier. Men hva betyr det egentlig? I dette innlegget håper jeg å forklare en populær norsk ordtak, og samtidig gi tips til hvordan vi kan forbedre kommunikasjonen vår med hverandre. Hvis du har hørt barnerim eller godnatthistorier da du var barn, har du sannsynligvis lært at...

CLONMACNOISE

I thought it might be interesting to imagine life at a medieval monastery and surrounding town in Ireland.  I have been thinking about Ireland once again because my wife will be leaving for Belfast in less than a month to spend a few weeks in the north. I’ve chosen a particularly prosperous town in the south called Clonmacnoise to focus on, partly because it is centrally located in Ireland and also because of the many pilgrims who visited to pay homage...

MOURNING IN AMERICA: A DAILY CHRONICLE

Jump to most current post NOTE: This post (Mourning in America) will be a just a small tile in the mosaic portraying the decline of this once great nation. It may be of use to some future generation trying to grasp what people in the U.S. were feeling and thinking in the year 2025 much as Germans pondered the loss of their individual freedoms and the rise of National Socialism almost a century ago. MARCH 29, 2025 (SATURDAY) I left...

The book our mothers read

THE BOOK OUR MOTHERS READ

I was first introduced to John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) when I was in high school.  He was a Quaker, native to New England, an abolitionist and a poet.  We read one of his many works, and it was called The Book Our Mothers Read.  It has only eight lines, but those eight lines contain the wisdom of the ages.  This is what Whittier writes: “We search the world for truth; we cullThe good, the pure, the beautiful,From graven stone and written scroll,From all old flower-fields...

The Solver Maples of Spring

THE SILVER MAPLES OF SPRING

Of all the marvelous biomes I’ve lived in and experienced in my life, from the polar ecosystem of the Arctic to the tropical, broadleaf jungles of Asia; from the vanishing wetlands of the Everglades, to the Blackland prairie, I find that the hardwood, deciduous forests of New England are my favorite. They watched over me as I grew as a child. And of all the hardwood trees such as the ash, the walnut, the oak and the hickory to name...

Portals (Part One)

PORTALS (PART ONE)

This is something of a “fun” topic for me.  In some sense, it reminds me of when I was a small child wandering through the woods where I lived. I always felt safe among the stoical sentinels; the towering oaks, the fragrant hemlocks, the colorful sugar maples and the white birches. These trees were home to many arboreal tenants, such as chattering red and gray squirrels, chipmunks and raptors including merlins, hawks and owls. There were ancient and therefore somewhat indistinct...

The irony of God

THE IRONY OF GOD

Irony (Gk: eironeia) is an interesting word, and it is not the easiest to define.  There are various subtleties present depending on the discipline that applies it.  A common denominator though involves some sort of juxtaposition between two starkly different people, principles or situations.  In I Corinthians 2:8 and Colossians 2:15, St. Paul speaks of Satan and Christ.  Satan had provoked and manipulated the religious and civil authorities to have Jesus arrested, condemned to the cross, and his lifeless body entombed.  That was that!  As far as...

FOLK FISHING

Almost all of us have driven by people fishing off of bridges, perhaps we’ve seen them in a small boat on a lake or pond, or on the end of a dock or pier.  People who fish more than casually have their favorite “fishing holes” where they believe fish gather.  They know the fish are there because they see the bubbles or tiny ripples on the surface of the water.  But more importantly, seasoned fishermen can feel the presence of fish—they feel them in their...

ON THE TRAIL OF CANCER ONE YEAR LATER

The very beginning of my cancer blog can be found here JUNE 4, 2025 (WEDNESDAY) Well, the bottom line is that I had a small (~ 1 cm) tumor, likely to be cancerous removed from my bladder yesterday. And actually, except for waiting a number of hours to get inside the main OR, everything went well. Because of my difficult airway anatomy which has been morphed by COPD or some other thing (including old age), the anesthesiology department recommended a...

When life is a puzzle

WHEN LIFE IS A PUZZLE

Deena gifted me a 750-piece jigsaw puzzle for Christmas.  She knew I enjoyed puzzles as a child and she picked out a puzzle with four or five different portraits of dogs. Last month, I opened it right about the time our grandchildren came to visit.  They loved it, especially our eight-year-old grandson.  He seemed to have a special talent for this.  Children—and adults—learn patience, perseverance, organizational skills and much more when they are engaged completing a jigsaw puzzle. Completing a puzzle is actually solving...

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