Themes of love and death are pervasive in the arts throughout history. Poets, philosophers, novelists have wrestled with the human disposition towards ‘dying for love,’ ‘dying to self for love,’ ‘dying to love.’ These nuances reveal the complexities of human relationships. Dying for love. Does this mean dying figuratively because of having love? Or because…
It’s never too late . . .
Meet my friend Henry. I can say ‘friend’ even though I met him just recently at the gym. He’s the kind of guy I want as a friend. 93 years old. Pushes his walker at a good c lip as he enters the gym with determined focus. Heads straight to the first of his…
A word about my writing
Fellow travellers for the journey. Having coffee with a writing advocate, he mentioned my pieces are getting longer – but assured me it was okay. Nevertheless, the observation was instructive to be more vigilant in assessing the breadth of material I include, its relevance to the topic at hand, as well as the compactness with…
Juxtaposition – a lesson from the ‘Up’ movie
Juxta (next to). Pose (to place). Juxtapose (to place next to). ‘Juxtaposition‘ describes a situation where two elements that don’t seem to belong together are placed side by side. The contrast heightens emotional impact, creates irony, conveys a clash of realities, and engages the reader, viewer, or listener more dynamically than if each element was…
“If only . . .” or “At least . . .”? – the power of regret
It was the women’s individual cycling road race at 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Anna van der Breggen (center) won gold “by the width of a tire.” Emma Johansson (on left) got silver. And Elisa Borghini (on right) came in third for bronze. At the finish line, Anna (gold) raised her arms in…
Darrell and Barbara – an encounter with fellowship
In A ‘problem’ with “Ask Jesus into your heart,” I introduced ‘differentiation’ and ‘integration’ to describe how individuals and organizations work to create their identify. They outline differences to distinguish themselves from others (differentiation) or similarities to show avenues of potential alignment (integration). I shared how Indigenous students in a conservative evangelical college exemplified these…
A ‘problem’ with “Ask Jesus into your heart”
I am 100% Ukrainian on both sides of my parental lineage. Raised in the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church and steeped in Ukrainian culture. It was a strong local church community with a large extended family network through heritage and marriage. From the cradle to the grave.Baptism of babies had symbolic rites including ‘adoption’ by godparents….
Her name was Merrilee
I wish I could find a picture of her. Especially when dressed in her clown costume to do a program with children. She was a woman born deaf but could communicate on levels that surpassed many ‘normal’ hearers. And I believe she was an active agent in saving my life. It was a good day…
How much is enough? . . . Sometimes ‘less is more’
This picture reminds me of a childhood experience. An uncle offered me a choice between two coins: a nickel or a dime. He didn’t include a quarter since it would have defeated the exercise. Of course I took the nickel. You know why. I was 5 years old. My awareness for the respective value of…
“You can do it . . . !”
“You can do it, Ron! You can do it!” Mile 17 or 18 of the New York City Marathon. What’s often called ‘hitting the wall.’ A point in the 26.2 miles where a runner longs to just collapse into a fetal position on the sidewalk. I had already shifted into an even slower gear than…