It was 8 o’clock. Carl was late and not moving. Idling black buses with grating on the windows and large “In Science We Trust” logos on the sides backed up the streets of Whatchit. Carl hoped he wasn’t too late. Carl finally saw the opening. He revved his bike, weaved between three buses and entered…
In his current state, it might take years for Vic to recover his right mind. He’s been flaying around and mumbling the whole time in the back seat of my car. His mind, no longer aware of surroundings, seemed to be in a state of virtual reality. And that is the reason for the all-night…
As kids we preceded “Who Says So?” and “Who do you think you are?” with “Oh yeah!” “These questions weren’t posed to source a truth-bearing authority we would readily accept. Rather, they were a demand to know “Who thinks they can tell me what to do?” The hands-on-the-hips stance has been around since the Garden…
The made-for-TV melodrama General Fauci has aired for a year and a half. Its storyline of a global pandemic, mimicking the fantasy narratives of the “We’re-all-gonna-die-unless-somebody-from-science-saves us” pandemic movies of recent years, has a twist. Instead of the pandemic creating zombies, the pandemic mitigation methods – masks and vaccines – creates zombies. The main character…
Before I go, say, to the hair salon or to the car repair shop or to a doctor’s appointment, I think about what I want and what I don’t want. Then, I am able to choose the path I take. During my yearly checkup in March, the doctor came into the room all gowned and…
The regular Sunday afternoon phone calls to my mother ended just over a year ago. Mom passed last March. Years before, my parents retired and moved a thousand miles away from Chicago. I called on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day. These phone conversations and the many others had an endearing sameness to them When I…
You and I are inundated by narratives day and night. We are implored to spend our time, money, and allegiance in response to them. Their goads come at us through the mail, and via emails, radio, TV, and social media. Here are only a few of their associated rallying cries: “Today Only!” “Act Now!” “Call…
The following took place during my thirteenth year . . . A week before Christmas Day, a gaggle of us self-conscious teenagers loaded into three cars. We headed to Elgin State Hospital, formerly called the Northern Illinois Hospital and Asylum for the Insane. Our church’s youth group leader had decided that, in the spirit of Christmas,…
Kingdom Venturers 