There is a story in the gospels where a man had a child that was possessed by a malignant spirit. Jesus's disciples couldn't do anything, and the man pleaded "Lord, if you can, heal my son!" Jesus looked at him, and said ""If you can?' Anything is possible for him who believes." He replied "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!" Generally speaking ( Read more... )

I have a friend of mine who upset the leadership in his church, and he has to have a "talk" with them next sunday. This is not the first time something like this has happened, but, like me, it has been a number of years. He doesn't go around picking a fight with the establishment. He does his thing while they do their thing; however, when there ( Read more... )

Ian, Carrie, and myself went to subway last night. My mom called, and wanted to talk to me about what happened to pop on sunday. She asked "Do you know what causes an increase in appetite, hallucination, and paranoia?" I snorted. "Holy christ, mom! Dad's smoking pot now?! What a fuckin' stoner."  A couple weeks ago the doctors gave him some ( Read more... )

When we were kids, Tom and I would walk everywhere. When we went camping with our parents and godparents in starve hollow we would venture on to the trails, or the beach next to the lake. During the nice parts of the year like late spring, or mid-autumn, Mom would take us to Mound State Park in Anderson. The trails there were awesome, but a bit ( Read more... )

My supervisor was gone most of the week. Last weekend her grandfather died of prostatic/colon cancer. She came back today, and I went up to talk to her about what happened; and also to offer condolences. I'm not much in the way of encouragement, but I can somewhat relate. We talked about ten minutes, and she mentioned that when he went that he had ( Read more... )

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

I have an expressive personality. Whether hurt, sad, happy, or upset, I vocalize what is on my mind. Moreso than usual that is; especially when I am stressed. All my energy is focused on getting through a matter, and there nothing available to maintain any kind of patience. You do something stupid in front of me, or, God forbid, you do something ( Read more... )

Sixteen years ago when I was in college, I met a friend's dad. He was a short man. Maybe 5"5 or 5"6, and he was bald. His baldness was in the pattern of a clown costume: Full, thick hair on the sides and the back, but absolutely no hair on the top. He kept it relatively short. The kind of short where you can manipulate the hair.with a brush or a ( Read more... )

And what is a man? He is someone who has risen when life has knocked him down. He is someone who raises his fist to heaven when a storm has ruined his crop - and then plants again. And again. A man remains unbroken by the savage twists of fate.
Than man may never win. But when he sees himself reflected, he can be proud of what he sees. For low he ( Read more... )

The internal wreckage has been quite hard to conceal in the last few weeks. It has been spilling over into all aspects of my life.  I've noticed that I have been quite hostile with people who I don't know, but annoy me. There have been people that I didn't  know harass me. In both instances, I wanted to fight them. Not teach them a lesson, or ( Read more... )