Is there a keeper of the spring in your life? Perhaps you need to heed the counsel of a Scottish preacher named Peter Marshall. Marshall had a gift. His Scottish brogue did more than enchant. It allowed him to communicate relevant ideas. His post-war generation was so different, yet so much the same as ours. “The Keeper of the Spring” became one [...]
This is the year I received my official “old-man card” (aka Medicare). It arrived in the trail of gray hair, bifocals, and hearing loss. Such is life when you get to a certain age. The concept of an age at which things change is nothing new. The idea of retirement came from Otto Von Bismarck to rid himself of rivals and control [...]
On August 13, 1968, life changed. My parents went to a strange place and signed papers. We then went to Paula Stringer Realtors office (no longer there) on Central Expressway and picked up a key. We drove to the place the key fit. 620 Kindred Lane in Richardson. We opened the door to a two-story house, twice the size [...]
In this COVID-19 situation, people ask the same question? When. When will the virus be gone? When will our lives return to normal? Will I still have a job? Are restaurants and small businesses going to survive? All are questions longing for certainty. People like certainty. We want to know food is available. They turn to the weatherman on the TV, [...]
When COVID-19 (or as it was called then coronavirus) started rippling the news, I did not sound serious. After all, all media makes money by scaring people to death. I soon grew weary of breathless news anchors prophesying Armageddon. (I always thought that was the realm of end-times evangelicals.) But then, it did start getting serious. Doctors I knew and trusted seemed [...]
They are everywhere. The multi-room units pop up squeezed between properties and on vacant lots. They are not apartments, but storage facilities. In America, there are more than 48,000 storage facilities. Their popularity comes from a thirst for more. Two out of three American households with garages also have a storage unit. It has become a particular problem for Baby-Boomers, those people [...]
The record books for the 2017 World Series will always have an asterisk by the entry. The Houston Astros, baseball's 2017 champion, had developed a system of stealing signals for pitches coming. Then, through banging on a trash can, the batter would know what pitch to expect. The scandal rocked the sport and has turned ugly on social media. [...]
Every year (except for one) of the last fourteen years, I board a plane in the cold of Dallas and land in the tropics of Nicaragua. I don't go on vacation or to discover a retirement place. It's about kids. Almost 2 decades ago, the church I serve, the Waterview Church of Christ in Richardson, started a simple program to feed poor [...]
We believe Amazon delivers happiness. We are happy when we get what we want. Many times, we need something more. This is the story of a cook who lost his more than his place. My mother subscribed to the idea that if truckers stopped at a restaurant, it is good food. So for a lot of my childhood, we surveyed the highway [...]
Every person hears a question knock on life’s door. Frustration gives it birth and mortality provides its cry. “Did I make any difference?” In the infancy of television, Rod Serling, a gravel-throated man with a dagger-like stare, produced a series called The Twilight Zone. Most of the episodes had a twinge of science fiction. It introduced young William Shatner and [...]
