Lying Labels

Thomas the Apostle got a bad rap. Branded forever as “doubting Thomas”, the label unfairly reduced him to a one-dimensional character and forever tainted the name Thomas. I have always been personally offended by this. Labels are conflicted things. Summing up a person or a product in a simple, easy to grasp, and memorable label…

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Trust Issues

My son borrowed his friend’s dad’s Mercedes AMG convertible for prom. When he told me he might borrow the car and asked me what I thought, I tried to be careful how I responded. Growing up, we didn’t have friends with cars that nice. I went to prom in my ’65 Chevelle Malibu (no, it…

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Salty

I have a good friend who puts extra salt on everything. With some effort, I have been able to convince them to at least try the food before adding salt, but after a taste, the salt always goes on. We have five basic tastes: salt, sweet, sour, bitter and umami (the taste of glutamic acid).…

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A Work Of Art

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis (which I recently visited) is an incredible testimony to determination, creativity, and faith. Started in 1907, the structure was completed in 1914, but it took several more decades for the church to be “finished.” One of the reasons it took so long is the church contains 83,000 square feet…

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Sum It Up

Résumé comes from the French, résumer, meaning “to sum up.” Curriculum Vitae, more commonly referred to by its shorthand abbreviation CV, is a Latin term meaning “course of life.” A résumé lists work history and experiences along with a brief summary of skills and education; the CV is a far more comprehensive document listing—in thoughtful…

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Be Good To Yourself

I have always said there is truth in Rock-n-Roll. Popular music is just that, because it is about themes we can all relate to—like love and heartbreak, winning and losing, being lost and becoming found, and all the others of an endless array of experience and emotion. One of the bands that resonated with my…

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What I Like About You

I was able to attend the Big 12 Wrestling Championship with my youngest son who is a high school wrestler. If you read last week’s post, I was grateful to add three days of quality time with him to the ever-dwindling number of days I have left. I also love to watch wrestling and love…

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Tiny Perfect Things

“Most of life is just junk. It’s filler, and then there’s these moments when all the randomness turns into something perfect. It’s like life’s dropping all the bullshit just for a second to show us how amazing it could be all the time, if it wanted to.” Mark (The Map of Tiny Perfect Things) In The…

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Leading The Flock

I spent the night once in the DuPage County Jail in Chicago. I got there by being a leader, leading five other young men in the wrong direction. I saw a video recently that reminded me when a leader is wrong, it has serious impacts on many other people. In this video, we are watching an unremarkable street…

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I Feel Loved

In “I Feel Loved,” the 2001 release by English electronic group Depeche Mode, Martin Gore’s lyrics paint a picture of how feeling loved cuts through pain and heartache and loneliness. It’s the dark night of my soulAnd temptation’s taking holdBut through the pain and the sufferingThrough the heartache and tremblingI feel loved I recently heard a…

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