I love great fantasy/adventure tales, especially ones in which ordinary people in ordinary places find an escape, or rather a hidden entrance, into another world where anything is possible. In the Harry Potter stories – my personal favorite – children run through a brick wall in London’s...

“Dad, I’ve a strange habit,” I confess. “Yeah, what’s that?” “We-ell,” I begin cautiously, “I can’t leave the house without checking to make sure the gas stove is off.  Sometimes I check it and re-check it five times before I leave.  Or I’ll come back in the house a couple of...

I remember a few years ago there was a discussion in Christian circles about exactly what the opposite of love could be. If people are not being kind and loving, what exactly were they doing instead? What do they need to stop doing so they can be loving, as we all know God is loving? What stops Christians,...

After school lets out for the summer, the girls and I speed through neighboring Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, approaching both our Myrtle Beach vacation and Christihimmelfahrt, or Ascension Day, per my twentieth century Filofax calendar.  A software project deadline has prevented Bjoern from travelling...

I recently started a garden. I’ve been growing tomatoes, peppers, green beans and squash. Well, I’ve been trying to grow those things. I thought I should probably have some idea how to produce my own food just in case the manure continues to hit the fan here in the good ol’ U....

  An animal enters a whole new world when it gets a name. An animal without a name is one of many – just an indistinguishable part of a set. But when an animal is named, it becomes part of, connected to, the one who gave it a name. In wars, the enemy rarely holds an individual name. We usually...

  Just in the three years I’ve been in Starkville, we Mississippi State fans can count on four or five or even six hands how many terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad calls cost us victories – with no thanks to the men wearing black and white stripes, often referred to by fans as “stupid...

On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, we are once again reminded of the most traumatic event to happen to our country during my generation. Ever since that day, we’ve struggled with how to heal as a nation and come to terms with the evil that exists in the world. There were many different ways we could...

“I love them whores, they never judge you. What can you say when you’re a whore?” - Jane’s Addiction I’ve been thinking about whores, church and Jesus lately (not necessarily in that order). There’s a story in the Bible about a prostitute who just had to get some time...

Music legend Marshall Grant, an original member of Johnny Cash’s backing band The Tennessee Three, died this weekend. I had the honor of meeting him about three years ago at the Johnny Cash Flower-Pickin’ Festival in Starkville. After a lengthy time of touring with Cash and acting as his...