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Fourteen-Day-Old-Already-Screwed-Up New Year’s Resolutions, and Listening to the Right Voices

“No one will want to read that.”

“If your friends knew about the things you’ve done, they’d be super disappointed and probably leave you.”

“If anyone found out about what was done to you, they’d secretly believe it was your fault. After all, it kind of was your fault.”

When you’re alone in your car, or on the train, or encountering an unexpected moment of silence, where do the voices in your head take you? When life taps the pause button on your to-do’s and schedules and scurrying from here to there, like a squirrel suddenly confronting a predator in the midst of hoarding acorns for the winter, which voices are you believing?
Continue reading “Fourteen-Day-Old-Already-Screwed-Up New Year’s Resolutions, and Listening to the Right Voices”

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Five Writing Secrets Found in the Movie, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”

I don’t remember the first time I watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but (as I’ve explained while pulling writing secrets from other 80s movies) I was only nine years old for most of 1986 and there’s no way my parents were going to let me watch a PG-13 rated movie at that point. But it is one of those 80s classics, right up there with Breakfast Club and Can’t Buy Me Love.

Here are some of the secrets it has to teach us about writing: Continue reading “Five Writing Secrets Found in the Movie, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off””

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On Letting Go of Beautiful Things, and the Importance of January 11th

Here I am, an old man in a dry month,
Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain.
– TS Eliot

There is a time in the winter, approximately eleven days into a new year, when everything stops. The grass has finally given in and turned a greenish-tan, like oxidized copper. Cold air halts even the wind, perhaps just for a moment. And the only leaves that haven’t drifted off are those clinging to dead branches.
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A Boy Finds God in an Empty Church

The little boy walked out of his dad’s office and wandered through the empty church. Even though his father was a pastor, he had never been in that building during a weekday when the lights were out and stillness crept down the narrow hallways and stairwells.

He went down into the basement. This was the lively heart of the church, at least on Wednesday nights when all the kids had activities and the adults vanished off into rooms or the upstairs auditorium. It was almost creepy, the activity and noise traded for dim light, shadows, and the hum of the refrigerator in the corner.
Continue reading “A Boy Finds God in an Empty Church”

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A Knee-Jerk Reaction to “Legos for Girls”

I grew up on Legos. There may or may not have been a time in my life when I actually believed most structures consisted of plastic blocks hooked together by raised, round dots. I still sometimes check the top of my head for a circular band on which to attach my baseball cap with the over-sized brim.

Now, at the age of eight, my son is obsessed. Most Christmases and birthdays involve Legos – he’s constantly taking things apart, building his own stuff, then digging the old instruction manuals out of the closet and reconstructing the original (something which requires even greater patience, since by that time all the pieces have ended up in the large plastic, central storage container which contains the remnants of every set he’s ever owned).

I noticed something interesting in the last year: both of my daughters have become very interested in Legos. Continue reading “A Knee-Jerk Reaction to “Legos for Girls””

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What is Your Favorite Place in the US?

If you visited this small corner of the universe on Tuesday, then you heard about how our family is about to embark on a journey of epic proportions.

Today, I’m asking for a little help from you.

What is your absolute favorite spot in the country? Maybe it’s a city that you love, or a national park. Perhaps it’s a particular restaurant or your own back yard. We want to know! (Be careful about promoting your own back yard – you might wake up one morning and find our bus parked there).

What is your favorite place in the (continental) US?