Troubled waters during the French and Indian War

WE VISIT FORT WILLIAM HENRY

The Seven Years’ War is not very well known in this country. Winston Churchill called it “The first World War” since it was actually fought on five different continents.  It’s difficult to point to a single event that historians agree was the casus belli.  Was it the Prussian invasion of Saxony in Europe?  A dispute over the boundaries of Arcadia? A skirmish, perhaps, in western Pennsylvania between British forces who were badly-led by a twenty-two-year-old officer named George Washington in which a French envoy...

Serene pool with waterfall in the Catskill mountains

A CATSKILL MOUNTAIN HOMECOMING

“Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill mountains. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country. Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains; and they are regarded by all the good...

Welcome sign at Bowdoin College

AN ACCOUNT OF OUR VISIT TO BOWDOIN COLLEGE

Deena and I are about to commemorate our first year in quarantine.  It actually started in mid-March, 2020, after I got back from a visit to Texas.  She and I have been pretty faithful about observing the restrictions.  It’s not just that we’re both over 65 and a virus like this might set us down for the count.  The other half of the equation is that we don’t want to spread the virus to other people who might become gravely ill because of our...

Family emerges from quarantine

AFTER THE PANDEMIC ENDS (PART I)

At some point in the future, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic will end. Even now there are signs of hope as the food lines and testing lines are rivaled by people waiting patiently in a line for a vaccine.  The flu pandemic of 1918 lasted for two years and two months, and currently we are entering the second year of the current pandemic.  The longer this pandemic continues, the more our society will change, the greater the change and more permanent the change we’ll...

My Journey with Cancer Part 2. Cancer cells dividing.

MY JOURNEY WITH CANCER (PT 2)

To jump to the most current post, click HERE Welcome to Part 2 of my blog post My Journey With Cancer. I’m blogging daily with no understanding of when or how my journey will end. It might be ten years from now or it may be much sooner. But then, again, does anyone know the measure of time they been apportioned on Earth? And what is time? And what happens to us when that time runs out? The reason I...

Infant being baptized

A BRIEF COMMENT ON INFANT BAPTISM

  • February 5, 2021
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  • Faith

What a long, strange trip it’s been I typically try to avoid discussions on issues that divide Christians (such as who can receive communion and the meaning and mode of baptism), because individual denominations have taken stands one way or another and the debate can be heated, tiring, and totally unpersuasive.  So, rather than go into the subject of infant baptism root and branch, let me explain in general terms how I evolved from disdaining infant baptism to embracing, or at...

Girl looking out a window with gentle rain falling

THE QUALITY OF MERCY

  • February 3, 2021
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  • Faith

PORTIA:  “The quality of mercy is not strained:it drops on to the world as the gentle rain does – from heaven.It’s doubly blessed. It blesses both the giver and the receiver.It’s most powerful when granted by those who hold power over othersIt’s more important to a monarch than his crown.His sceptre shows the level of his temporal power –The symbol of awe and majesty in which lies the source of the dreadand fear that kings command.But mercy is above that sceptered power.It’s enthroned in the hearts of kings.It...

Post cards from last century

POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE–VOICES FROM THE LAST PANDEMIC

I found several dozen letters and personal accounts from the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918 in the U.S. on the CDC website, and I’ve included some here as a context of what our ancestors experienced back then, and in terms of what we’re going through now. You can see that during the flu pandemic, people were urged to stay home, limit social activities, and churches and schools were closed even as now. By and large, Americans back then saw it as their...

SALT AS A NEW TESTAMENT METAPHOR

  • February 1, 2021
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  • Faith

If you ask twenty-five people what single thing they’d like to have with them if stranded on a desert island, the chances are at least one person will say “salt.”  Personally, this mineral (commonly called Halite and symbolized as NaCl) would be at the top of my list, because I often crave salt or salted snacks much like other people crave sugar, chocolate, and other sweets. Salt has always been important to civilization.  Our word “salary” comes from the Latin word salis, which...

CT Scan

MY JOURNEY WITH CANCER

Jump to most recent post The new year is barely two weeks old, and I’m already finding out what 2023 will bring. While some people will be coping with war and peace, poverty, inflation and unemployment, love and marriage, happiness and sadness, I (and my loving wife, Deena) will find ourselves meeting new people, visiting new places, experiencing new things and the common denominator is cancer. Our plans to travel to my homeland in Germany next winter may not occur...

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