A succession of pecan trees lines the road to our homeplace. They have stood at least a century and now are stooped with age, losing life and limb with every storm-force gale of the season. They once bore much fruit–so much we would put down tarps to catch the treasures falling in the autumn breeze faster than we could collect…
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A story is told of a Norwegian ambassador to America who was new, inexperienced, and had little time to learn American culture or language. Sometime around November, a New York Times reporter called him and asked what he wanted for Christmas. The ambassador, confused, replied that he couldn’t accept gifts. Days later, the reporter called and asked him again what…
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About a year ago, I was at a coffee shop being interviewed about one of my books. After the discussion, I sat down and struck up a conversation with a young man. He had heard the interview, and as we talked, he shared that he was an atheist. I really enjoyed my conversation with him. He was intelligent, listened to…
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A couple years ago, I joined my friends in their backyard to view the heavens through their telescope. I put my eye to a lens and gazed at a star millions of miles away from me. I witnessed the glow of a fire that burns 140,000 times hotter than our sun. I viewed photons, or particles of light, that began…
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Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping, into the future. Well, I guess you would have to be old like me to recognize the lyrics from a 1976 song by Steve Miller Band, but those lyrics keep playing in my head. We like to think we are in control of so many things in this world today, including what we do…
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