I have an acquaintance who is a religious cliché machine. Give him a microphone and he can talk 15 minutes and never say anything original. It doesn’t make sense because it is a string of spiritual one-liners and the saints love it. At least the...
We just received word that one of my old golfing friends was injured today while getting ready to move. I don’t know any of the details so I’m just going to speak generally about old guys not knowing their limitations. Little by little the clock...
According to Harper’s Magazine doctors in the U.S. operate on the wrong person or wrong organ 40 times a day. Now I understand why the doctor that gave me a new knee came to me while I was still awake and asked me which leg. ...
There I stood in my best suit in front of a man who had just eaten an egg salad sandwich. What can one do when little pieces of egg and mayonnaise come flicking your way? Every “P” and “B” came loaded. I tried backing up...
As the recycle truck rolled down the hill it hit my friend. Her fanny pack was in that truck. That wouldn’t be so bad except for what was in the fanny pack. Her passport, her wallet, her credit cards, her driver’s license were on the...
Upon the birth of his fifth child one of my students in Uganda assured me that was their last child because the doctor gave his wife pills. About six months later he came to class quite glum. He told me his wife was pregnant. He...
One evening, many years ago on a Wednesday night after prayer meeting, I was leaving to drive all night from Des Moines to central Wisconsin. As I was locking up the church one of my friends said, “Let’s pray for your safety.” And so he...
They are called Loyalty Cards. Supermarkets and pharmacies entice us to use them so we can get discounts. What they don’t tell us is often our purchase records are sold to life insurance and health insurance companies that analyze our purchases. It is amazing what...
Yesterday I made a motel reservation. It was not easy. It was difficult for me to understand the person who answered the phone and I think he had a difficult time understanding me. When he read back what he had confirmed for us, it was...
I watched a friend slice open a beautiful mango. It was just the right firmness with a striking blend of red, orange, yellow and green. It was a beauty. It was the inside that was impressive – impressively bad. Black. What a disappointment. Where was...