• Thoughts

    Get Behind Me

    Once again (twice? thrice? who knows?), I have come across the statement, “Get behind me, Satan.” It was there the night before last when I opened the pages of a notebook. “Get behind me, Satan”: those are the words Jesus…

  • Thoughts

    You Should Probably Be Pissed

    “Anger is bad.” “Give me facts not feelings.” “Science is unquestionable.” “Religion equals God.” What do all those statements have in common? They are, quite simply, wrong. Yet that’s not all there is to it: each and every one is…

  • Thoughts

    No Demands

    The trees in the forest across the road, where my family and I like to spend time, speak to me of perseverance and acceptance and being. They do being very well, far better than any of us. The fir trees…

  • Thoughts

    What Is Shame Good For?

    If you want to break a pattern, respond differently. Such a simple statement. I would call it deceptively simple, and by that I mean more easily said than done. In fact, I would contend that, although responding differently is essential,…

  • Thoughts

    Longing to Be

    I recently read an essay that laments the unrest in the world, concentrated, as usual, in the Middle East. Two specific statements (sentiments) shared by the author (editor of an art magazine) caught my attention, because each purports to be…

  • Uncategorized

    English Major Heretic

    No institutional training required It’s a day ending in Y, so I am thinking about or starting a new website. Actually, in this case, it’s a new Substack, and this time, I’m asking others to join me. In short, I…

  • Thoughts

    The Big Lesson

    There is no teaching until the pupil is brought into the same state of principle in which you are; a transfusion takes place; he is you and you are he; then is a teaching, and by no friendly chance or…

  • Thoughts

    Thinking about Love

    If you do not know or understand someone, can you truly love them? The desire to love needs to include the desire to understand. To know, one must believe that knowing is possible. Communion, which encompasses authentic sharing, cannot be…

  • Thoughts

    Put It Together

    One of the gifts Dennis gave me for Christmas is a one-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle. It was on my Amazon wishlist, because I’ve learned that not all puzzles are created equal, and if I want one that won’t drive me crazy,…

  • Thoughts

    Be Who You Are

    I used to struggle to call myself a writer, an artist, a photographer. Didn’t I have to make money at something to be that?Even if I did make money at it, did the label really fit? Sometimes I forgot that…