When I first came to Fairfield, I had a bad case of the big head. I’d had several books published, still had hair, was married to a striking, intelligent woman ..read more

Several years ago, a man I know was told he was dying, which of course we all are, but his death was sooner than he had anticipated. Though well-off, he’d always been miserly, to the frustration of his wife who wanted them to travel and see things and visit their children scattered across the country and all those important things that aren’t cheap, but immensely rewarding. Facing death, his priorities changed, and he made a bucket list of things he’d always wanted to do, including buying gifts for his friends and family, home improvements, making sure his wife had a new car, eating out more ..read more

This happened maybe 30 years ago, when I attended a conference for Quaker pastors down in Orlando. Someone had the bright idea to get all the Quaker pastors in America together and somehow the Evangelical Friends were put in charge, which meant all the speakers were evangelicals who did their best to get us all whipped up so our meetings would grow and Quakerism would be saved. So Joan and I flew down, because who doesn’t like Orlando in the winter. If memory serves me correctly, Joan, being smarter than I, sat by the pool reading books while I attended the meetings. It was the same format eve ..read more

When our children were born, Joan bought a camera and started taking pictures. Pictures of everything—vacations, hikes, family gatherings, birthday parties, first haircuts, first days of school, holidays, thousands of pictures. Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, the boys moved away and for a single blissful year I could do anything without being photographed. The paparazzi had moved on to someone else. But then Spencer got married and Madeline was born and out came the camera, except this time it was on a smart phone and far more convenient, and what had been thousands of pictures ..read more

I got the notice this week that my high school graduating class is planning our 45th year reunion, which I was looking forward to, but now am not, due to the confirmed presence of a narcissistic man who spent our twelve years together bullying our most vulnerable classmates, and has continued to do so, except now he does it on Facebook. I took an online test this week to see when I would die and according to the test, I only have 11 years and 240 days left to live and don’t want to spend even a minute of it with this man. I don’t wish him ill. I don’t wish anyone ill, but I have learned that C ..read more

I remember when I was in the sixth grade and my best friend was a boy named Joe who was a Jehovah’s Witness. I was still Catholic and believed Joe was going to hell so made it my purpose in life to point out the errors of his religion and convert him to the One True Church, which, as luck would have it, happened to be the one I belonged to. As it turns out, Joe felt the same way about his faith, so even as I was trying to convince him to join the One True Church, he was doing the same thing to me. The odds were in my favor. Catholics celebrated birthdays and Christmas and Jehovah Witnesses did ..read more

One of the things Joan and I have always enjoyed is antiquing, so when we renovated her family’s farmhouse, and had to furnish it, we went to Gilley’s Antique Mall in search of a chest of drawers for the downstairs bedroom. We found a beautiful handmade chest with a hidden drawer and purchased it. When we got it home, I was going over it and found the signature of the man who’d built it. He’d signed his name on the inside of a drawer. Thomas Newby, New Castle, Indiana, 1832. What a wonderful discovery! I suspected Thomas Newby had been a Quaker, Newby being a common Quaker surname in that era ..read more

The older I get, the more I look forward to summer, and this summer especially. It’s been several years since I’ve been to the state fair, and there’s something I’ve always wanted to do there, but never have, which is to visit the Pentecostal tent just inside the front gate. Slowing down as I approach, studying their posters, looking confused, then saying, “Just who is this Jesus you speak of?” I feel so sorry for those people. No one talks with them. They step out, brochure in hand, smiling, and people scowl and hurry by. No one who spends their vacation trying to save the rest of us from hel ..read more

Well, that was some eclipse, wasn’t it? I hope you were able to enjoy it since we won’t have another one until 2153, 129 years from now. Thirty-five of us gathered on the kitchen porch here at the meetinghouse. Herb and Chris grilled hot dogs and we ate moon pies and played cornhole, then watched the darkening skies and after that the gradual lightening, a dawn at mid-day. If we had been ancient people, it would have terrified us. We would have fled to the nearest cave. But now that we are enlightened, we know eclipses happen because God is fed up and wants to smite us upside the head. This ha ..read more

Some time ago, I wrote an essay about the abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. It got published and circulated around, and made its way back to Danville, to the Catholic Church where I had been raised. I knew that was likely to happen and had girded my loins, as the Bible says. Truth be told, I had been in trouble with the Quakers for so long, I was looking forward to being in trouble with a new group of folks. Mix things up a bit. Sure enough, I began to hear rumors that certain Catholics were upset and wanted to meet with me. A few of them saw me around town and said they wanted to take me ..read more