books, spiritual life

Revisiting my mother’s Jesus

My mom's been gone more than three years now. That's long enough for me to have winnowed through most of her possessions, but not all. There's still some papers. I somehow have the cemetery lot deeds for literally everyone in the family -- as if the land where they are buried might be repossessed at… Continue reading Revisiting my mother’s Jesus

family life, spiritual life

A trail of book crumbs

I thought I knew all the juicy family "secrets." The marriages, the not-quite marriages and, well, the one about the many-greated uncle -- a farmer who was shot to death on a dirt road I have actually walked. The story is that my relative discovered someone was stealing his chicken feed and he poisoned the… Continue reading A trail of book crumbs

spiritual life

Is Post Pandemic Stress Syndrome a thing?

I recently heard that a certain percentage of survivors of the influenza epidemic of the early 1900s manifested Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for a handful of years after the dying stopped. The journalist in me wondered how modern Americans could determine an accurate percentage for something that happened a century ago -- particularly given that… Continue reading Is Post Pandemic Stress Syndrome a thing?