Observations / Reflections Archive

Goodbye, Dixie Belle Moody

(Written June 17, 2020) It had been six months or so since our sweet Beagle/Jack Russell mix, Pepper, had left us. Cancer. We had gathered around him, loved on him, and then watched the merciful drug put him into an everlasting sleep. We wept ...Read More

The Teddy Bear Time Machine

I was stuffing the toys back into the toy closet after a visit from grandchildren when I suddenly became aware that I was being watched. Peering at me from the back of the closet was a teddy bear – a little bit frayed and ...Read More

The Irony of Autocorrect

Please get your right hand ready, and indulge me in a little “show of hands” survey. All right. Show of hands. How many of you have a cell phone? That’s all of you. When you are messaging or posting, how many of you have ...Read More

We Can Defeat Racism and Bigotry

Well here it is again. That feeling of hopeless helplessness that washes over me when the news of a world-impacting event characterized by conflict, division, injustice, loss of life, or suffering begins to settle into my consciousness. I know I cannot do anything about ...Read More

The Fact that You Know It Doesn’t Make It True

Life Lessons from the Front Porch What does it mean to “know” something? Great thinkers and philosophers have been debating this from time immemorial. There is even a branch of study devoted to this. It is called epistemology. The study of how it is ...Read More

The Christmas Light

The first Christmas – the one when Jesus of Nazareth was born – occurred in the shadow of vicious hatred, racism, and fear. A candle lit in the midst of utter darkness. A tiny light of hope under a pervasive, ominous blanket of evil. ...Read More

Are You Qualified to Be My Friend?

[Spoiler Alert / Disclaimer – in this post, I may or may not quote from an ancient compendium of deep wisdom which many dismiss out-of-hand as fanciful religiosity. I make no apology for this.] Are you qualified to be my friend? Do you pass ...Read More