Your city may have an ocean. It may have mountains. It may have an NBA franchise, or even a Major League Soccer team. It may have real subways. It may have a happily integrated population and a vibrant downtown nightlife. But unless your city is my city, it doesn’t have an Arch. Or at...
Two Easters, Far From Home
For a few decades there, I wasn’t much of a churcher. However, on two Easter Sundays during that time, I found myself at churches that were a long way—both geographically and ideologically—from home, and they were probably my most memorable Easters ever. Easter 1987 It was Jean’s and my first Easter together as husband...
As Lent Winds Down…
A few somewhat muddled thoughts on religion and church as Lent winds down: ***** It’s been a fascinating Lent, which started, of course, with Ash Wednesday. We went to the service at church, which in included the solemn, sobering ash ritual. I’d never gotten ashes before, and hadn’t even known Protestant churches did that....
Not Gonna Do It
Nope. I’m not going to post today. I’m not going to challenge the orthodoxy and post something on April first, because half the readers will think, wrongly, I’m trying to pull some kind of prank or something, and the other half won’t get the prank that I’m trying to pull on them. Oh, sure,...
My Favorite Year
Today is “Leap Day,” that day in which we celebrate the failure of the earth to adequately synchronize its rotation and revolution cycles. Because if this, it takes us just a little more than a five hours more than exactly 365 days to get around the sun. This schedule sloppiness means that we have...
Blurb
In the power and clarity of its prose, Shoulblog has been compared to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. “The writing in my blog is nowhere near as powerful or clear as Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.” —John Shoulberg...
Just Three Miles
I’m almost to the point where I can say “just three miles” again. After an excellent running year in 2010, last year was an abject disappointment. I had a bout with bronchitis in the early spring, followed by back problems (herniated disc) that kept my mileage way down all summer. I went to physical...
“You Are Welcome Here”
I guess we all have our Sunday-morning rituals. For me, the last couple of years, it has included a trip to Manor Grove nursing home in Kirkwood to spend time with my mom, who lived there in the late stages of her fight with Alzheimer’s, and with my dad, who came directly from church...
A Day Of Remembering
There was a surprise for me on Facebook this morning: a message from Sinan in Provincetown, asking if I had any digital pictures of my brother Jim. I met Sinan through Jim, before Jim died of AIDS in 1987. Today was World AIDS Day, and Sinan wanted to post a remembrance of him in...
The Pilgrims’ Pastor
I received the following e-mail on December 23 of last year. It hit me like a bolt of lightning out of a clear blue sky. The e-mail was from my cousin Beth, who lives in Maryland, and who I haven’t seen in many years. She has a deep interest in genealogy, as you’ll see...