A Leaf Falls 

When we moved to central Indiana forty-four years ago, one of my wife’s cousins, a graduate of Indiana University, told us that we’d love the long fall season in our new home.  My wife’s cousin was certainly right.  Just when it seems that autumn colors are at their peak, the colors become even more vibrant. …

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Glaciers

One of the most familiar Zen koans, or puzzles, is the question “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”    In an unexpected way, science has discovered an answer to the question.  And the scientific answer to the ancient koan is “yes, a…

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Homecomings

Coming home.  Homecoming.  This is a tradition centuries old and even older for species such as birds who migrate thousands of miles to return to nesting sites.  I was thinking about the attraction of human homecomings last weekend when I attended Franklin College’s annual fall celebration by the same name–Homecoming.  A past student of mine…

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The Beauty of a Slow Read

There are some books that can be read quickly.  There are other books that should come with a note stamped on the cover: “Best read slowly.”   One of the books that deserve a slow read is When the Music Stopped: Willy Rosen’s Holocaust, a work by a friend and colleague, Dr. Casey Hayes.  Is the…

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Seeing the Whole Picture

History has always fascinated me.  Some of my school friends hated memorizing dates, battles, and presidents, but I loved all of that.  But I also found history to sometimes be confusing.   From my Sunday school experience, I knew that the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt was the most important…

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What is a Saint?

One of my favorite spiritual writers, Thomas Merton, offered an important insight about saints.  He wisely observed that saints are not perfectionists.  That is, we shouldn’t expect a saint to be someone who has lived a perfect life or has even aspired to live such a life.  Saints are human beings; people who have struggled,…

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Honoring a Great Baseball Player and City

St. Louis is a special baseball city.  I remember the sportscaster Bob Costas saying that Cardinal fans were the most knowledgeable baseball fans in America.  Tony La Russa, manager of the Cardinals for sixteen seasons, once remarked that people in St. Louis would stop him on the street to suggest different batting lineups.   Although I…

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The Lesson of Northern Ireland

When I was a graduate student in the early seventies in Scotland, my wife and I wanted to visit Ireland.  The distance between Glasgow, Scotland, and Dublin, Ireland is roughly the same mileage as between Johnson County and Chicago, so it wasn’t the length of the trip that prevented our visit.  And even though we…

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Chalk Artists and Pink Floyd

I have long been fascinated by the “creative process” of artists.  Perhaps my first encounter with a real artist came in the church of my youth.  Once every two or three years, my church would invite a “chalk artist” to perform in a Sunday evening service.  These artists would set up their large easels in…

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Aging and Wisdom

Our culture emphasizes the challenges that come with aging more than its benefits.  Of course, as we age, there are activities we can no longer excel in and new health issues to contend with, but aging offers treasures for those who pursue them.   Wisdom is one of those treasures, but wisdom is not like grey…

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