“You don’t seem like a preacher, at least not a typical one. You’re ‘the real deal.’” The comment, coming from an inmate in jail, I took as a compliment, although I frequently ask myself if I’m really real. His comment was followed by a question: “How did you ever get to be a preacher in …
I never thought much about Santa smoking a pipe in Clement Moore’s 1823 poem, “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” but now that a new edition of the poem has taken his pipe away, I think I miss it. Would somebody please give Santa his pipe back? I don’t want him rummaging through my cabinets, frantically …
“Is someone important arriving here, or are people just waiting for family?” Before I could answer the man, the lady standing next to me in the airport terminal said in a voice loud enough for everyone around us to hear, “Family IS important!” I stepped back, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire of …
I used to work with someone who would on rare occasions step into my office and ask, “Can we talk?” I immediately knew something was seriously amiss and therefore needed to be addressed in order to avoid potentially disastrous consequences. One of those moments has come for our nation. We seemed to have avoided the …
Surprising someone with just the right gift is a risky business, even if you think you know the person well. I chuckle every time I think of that cartoon of the husband standing outside his bedroom door in his pajamas, wearing some ridiculous looking bunny rabbit slippers, trying to coax his wife out, pleading repentantly, …