May, or May Not?
Happy May Day! I was born and raised in a place where May was an important month, where May meant something. May was spring. It was much less likely to snow in May than in the months before it, and more likely to rain. The snow that had piled up over the winter would be ...
Dressing Up
I do not enjoy dressing up. One of my career goals now is never to need to wear a tie again. It is not the only reason I moved to Southern California, but it certainly helped. My challenges with dressing up stem from childhood. When I was a boy “dressing up” meant being physically uncomfortable. ...
Harvest
There are many differences between where I was born and raised and where I live now. There is more traffic here, on more freeways. There are more earthquakes and wildfires here, but more tornadoes and blizzards there. There are more people, from more different parts of the world, speaking more different languages, here. There is ...
Contemplative Football
I have watched professional football for longer than I can remember, for my whole life. I was born and raised by people who took professional football seriously. If our team were playing an East Coast team on a Sunday and the sermon went a little long, people would leave church to be home in time ...
Book Review: Pub Theology
Pub Theology by Bryan Berghoef is based in the belief that “good things happen when we sit down at the same table together and talk honestly about things that matter; frankly, having a beer does not hurt.” It is a book that speaks about things I value deeply: honesty about things that matter, openness and ...
September
For as long as I can remember, September has been one of my favorite months. September is filled with good things; many more than the average month. It begins in the United States with a holiday, Labor Day, which is essentially a day to prepare for all the other good things spread throughout the month. ...
Growing Up
Growing up is a very individual, personal process in the culture in which I was raised. There are few formal rites of initiation, and few recognized benefits of growing older. The culture is oriented toward the future, toward being youthful. People in our culture tend to put off growing up as long as possible. Growing up ...
Good Morning
I am a morning person. It is not that I roll out of bed each day with a smile on my face and a song in my heart, or that I am overflowing with enthusiasm to begin each and every day as early as possible. I tend to be a quieter, more Midwestern morning person. ...
Where Are We Going?
I grew up with a fairly external understanding of leadership. Leaders were people who lived somewhere else. They did not live where I lived, in rural Wisconsin, or when I lived there. I read books about leaders in history, and thought it must have been wonderful to have lived in such exciting, challenging times. I ...
Good Vibrations
I was reminded this week of how powerfully a dream can transport you through time. I was in a store or at a gas station, and the background soundtrack started playing a Beach Boys song. I immediately travelled from an unseasonably warm January day in Southern California back to one of the Midwestern winter days ...
