Sunshine and Shade: Emily Dickinson

SUNSHINE AND SHADE

I suppose I might have titled this post “Emily Dickinson: America’s Sweetheart” instead of “Sunshine and shade” and it would not be far from the truth. Incidentially, the woman on the feature photo is not Emily, but I wanted someone in period costume to suggest the age in which she lived and died (1830-1886.) The woman in the photo is not actress Cynthia Nixon, but she suffices. Was Emily truly America’s Sweetheart? Perhaps not then, but certainly now. Among the...

Losing hope

LOSING HOPE

This post focuses on pandemic-induced depression as well as feelings of hopelessness, especially as it deals with Christians or anyone else looking for hope or an excuse to go on in these difficult times. Depression occurs for a number of reasons, some beyond your control. It is no shame to be depressed, and it is not a contradiction or indictment of your faith if you do suffer from depression. If you are struggling daily with sadness, losing sleep at night,...

THE WTC ATTACKS REMEMBERED

Like most Americans who were old enough to remember the events of September 11, 2001, I remember where I was and what I was doing. I had just finished a “zero hour” dual credit college class at a rural high school approximately twenty miles from campus. I had just pulled out of the parking lot and turned on the Dallas CBS affilliate radio station KRLD to catch up on the traffic and weather. KRLD would provide traffic and weather reports...

Did God create the coronavirus?

DID GOD CREATE THE CORONAVIRUS?

This may seem to be an outrageous question to some, and not everyone will agree with my conclusions.  To address the primary question, I believe we need to examine some secondary questions as well, specifically (a)  Is God capable of creating the Coronavirus?  (b)  Did He create it, and (c)  if so, then why did He create it? Could God have created the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus? In this post I’ll also touch on healing and those who are not healed as well as pain and why...

God works in the life of an Afghan evacuee

GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS

I presume the child in this photo is a girl, though there is nothing convincing in the photo to assure me of this. No matter, boy or girl, God knows. This is one of the few fortunate children to escape Afghanistan only days before strict Sharia law is imposed. The child’s future is about to take a “synthetic”change of direction in terms of Hegel’s dialect. She may grow up as a Muslim or not, but she will be able to...

PRAY FOR THE SAFE RETURN OF OUR FORCES FROM KABUL

American forces leave Kabul The early stages of a deployment and the drawing down of forces are always the most dangerous times in a war. Hostile forces try to take advantage of the chaos as IS-K did yesterday. Thousands of Afghan civilian men, women and children with or without require papers mix in with U.S. military and civilians who wait in ninety degree weather while armed Taliban soldiers hover nearby. Meanwhile, the checkpoints at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in...

Augenblicke

The Cambridge Dictionary translates the German word Augenblicke as “moments, seconds, flashes, instants, jiffies, ticks.”  It is also translated as a “glance” or a “blink of the eye,” so it runs the range of being a fraction of a second (an average blink of a human eye lasts 1/10 of a second) to several seconds in the case of a casual glance. But a lot can happen in that time frame. Consider, for example . . . The Big Bang happened in a fraction of an...

All I've done and all I still hope to do.

WELCOME TO WATCH-FIRE

This blog contains reflections on my life: All I’ve done and all I still hope to do. I’ve had two successful careers and I’m working full time in yet a third field. During the past decades, I’ve met many different people from around the world and have enjoyed more than my share of rich and rewarding experiences. Yet, as much as I enjoy reminiscing over the past, I also anticipate better times for myself, my family and the people of...

A love story

A LOVE STORY

Schneewittchen, or Snow White as it is called now, was published in the early nineteenth century by the Brothers Grimm as Tale 53. There are many different iterations of the components in this tale, even within the writings of the Brothers Grimm. In this instance, it is a love story. I’ve taken some liberties to truncate this tale and make some minor changes to the storyline. Quotations come from Grimm’s Household Tales, Volume 1, Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm (Margaret Raine...

Heart of Darkness

HEART OF DARKNESS

Charles Marlow is the protagonist in Conrad’s book, but Marlow might as well be Joseph Conrad, himself, as they both shared similar experiences (including passage on the Congo River.) Marlow is hired to run a rundown sternwheeler of a steamship up and down the river carrying passengers and merchandise, particularly ivory.  The Congo River begins in the highlands of Lake Tanganyika and Lake Mweru and then (at least on the maps) carves an ugly, inverted, half-moon scar before it exits at...

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