In January, I had spring 2020 meticulously planned. I sketched it out in detail in not one, but three planners. I had a long-range view, a daily up-close detail, and something that fell in between and was open to all the inevitable entries from the outside world that would surely fill the squares. In February, we made sweeping, lifechanging decisions. Those planners each took on new importance. More
The challenge of writing a column during Coronatide is that one is never quite sure what life will look like two weeks hence. Will we still be “quarantined”? At this writing, we have been safe at home for 50 days. That means that technically we are 10 days past a quarantine. I’m quite certain no one was counting on using the strict definition of the word. What I do know as I write this morning is, no matter what, we will not have returned to “normal” when this column is published.More
Captain’s log: Day 53 of the 2020 spring COVID-19 quarantine. Forty-two states still have active stay-at-home orders. The run on cleaning supplies and toilet tissue continues. Schools are teaching through e-learning; youth ministries are conducting their outreach via Zoom, Instagram Live and Facebook Live; and families and friends are keeping up on their relationships by way of various apps. Social media for the win.More
Well, I’m not in Poland.More
Security. Safety. Safekeeping. The human craving for protection against harm is universal and reaches its anxiety-ridden peak in the face of an invasive threat like the coronavirus. Intensive media coverage heightens the sense of impending doom. Granting that, however, some responses to the desire for security strike me as attempts to exploit the public mood.More
In my line of work, I go to a lot of restaurants, and the company often looks to me to choose something from the wine list. This is a mistake. I can't tell red from white with my eyes closed. But I look on this as a blessing, because I do like a glass of wine with dinner, and I can be satisfied with a $4 bottle.More
During times of great stress and crisis, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, people can experience an increase of fear and despair. In some cases, unfortunately, the person loses a sense of hope and believes that death is preferable to continuing to live through the present hardship and tragedy. This point was sadly brought home recently when Dr. Lorna Breen, a New York doctor who had been working to save people infected with COVID-19 as the medical director of the emergency department of New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, took her own life while staying with family in Charlottesville.More
This is a time “to choose what matters and what passes away,” we heard Pope Francis say March 27 as we gathered around a laptop in our kitchen. St. Peter’s Square was emblematic of our lives — usually so packed but now eerily quiet. More