Musings

By Lauren Catanese Unforgiveness has a way of creeping up on us. One moment your energy is happy, joyful and at peace. Then someone comes around or a certain situation happens and the next thing you notice your mood has completely shifted. Your body might get tense, your smile disappears,...

I am watching Jeopardy! with an elderly woman who doesn’t know why I’m here because she has Alzheimer’s. We are in a nursing home. She sits in a wheelchair and blurts out answers along with the TV contestants. To be honest, Jeopardy! moves too fast for me. By the time I’ve...

By Rick Moore Supposedly, in the days of the Wild Wild West, if a prisoner on death row was well behaved, the sheriff would ask if he had any last request. Such requests would range from asking for a Holy Bible to a T-bone steak with a bottle of wine....

By Rev. Pete Hyde His name was John Chapman. He was born just before the Revolutionary War, and died in the mid 1800’s at the age of 70. He was an American pioneer that one might know as Johnny Appleseed. He became an American legend while he was still alive as a nurseryman...

By Kirk McCarley It was a two hour exam. As he thoughtfully sought the best words in response to the questions, a glance at the clock reminded him that it was now 2:45. Only 15 minutes remained until the bluebook must be submitted. The proctor overseeing the process reminded students of the time. “You...

Struggling happens maybe more times than one wants it to. Life turns into a circus act and one feels like the ringmaster in the spotlight expected to know how to run the show. And somehow, one forgot the act. Running on improvisational skills, one hopes they can provide the...

By Kirk McCarley Years ago, regular television programming on one of the three then available channels was annually preempted, often on a February Sunday evening.  Schoolchildren rejoiced over delayed bedtimes. Families settled down in front of mostly black and white TV sets to view the cinematic masterpiece, The Wizard of Oz.  A...

By Rick Moore My hero was the great motorcycle daredevil, Evil Knievel. Even before buying my first motorcycle, I tried to emulate him on a bicycle, as did most kids in my neighborhood. We certainly couldn’t jump cars, buses or the Snake Canyon, but we did jump sidewalk blocks. It...

Not too long ago one had the occasion to go back to Rogers, Arkansas where one graduated from high school. Yes, it had changed. It was the first time one had been back in quite some time. Moving there after one’s father retired from the Air Force in 1970, the population of Rogers was...

By Sean Dietrich Jacob was a foster child. He grew up in the Foster Pinball Machine. Birth to graduation. He was never adopted by a family. He and I weren’t good friends, but we knew each other. I lost track of him at age fifteen. He moved away to a...