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Steady by jerks

“How’s it going?” is a common conversation starter. I use the reply that Grandpa Nelson favored. “Steady by jerks,” I’ll say. This has never been truer than during my recovery from treatment for tonsil cancer. There are going to be repercussions whenever they slightly kill you with toxic chemicals and blast you with ionizing radiation. Think of Superman soaked in kryptonite. More than two months have passed since my last radiation. I was told that things would continue to get worse for the first two weeks. They weren’t kidding. My mouth and throat became so sore ...

Social media: the greatest oxymoron of the 21st century

Social media has changed lives, often for the better but at times for the worse. It’s transformed how people communicate. It used to be that the phone, the postal mail and face to face were the only options. Now people have online resources and social networking sites to talk to relatives, classmates and friends. Many times it facilitates good interaction. Sometimes it’s caused confusion or even animosity. Social media is basically an oxymoron, which means that the title of the concept does not reflect its true role in society. Media is not a social outlet. Social situations ...

Lineworkers and first responders are heroes in our communities

Fred Rogers, from the beloved children’s show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, once recalled how his mother comforted him during frightening times. “Look for the helpers,” she would say, reminding him of the people who, even in the worst situations, step up to help those in need. Many of those helpers recently returned home after restoring power in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, where entire towns were torn apart, homes were flooded, and millions faced the grueling uncertainty of days, even weeks, without power. For millions across the South, those helpers came in the ...

While world seems unmoored, there are familiar things to bring us together

Our church held its annual fall auction this past Sunday, an event organized and hosted by our women’s group nearly every year for nearly five decades. The event always draws a big crowd, including those outsiders who come to steal our baked goods. Coffee and bars are laid out on the tables in abundance. Good Lutheran church basement coffee, mind you. And even better church lady dessert bars. You know, seven layers, spiced with frosting, brownies with mini-M&Ms on top. All the classics. The tables were filled with items made with care and ready to be auctioned. Baked goods, ...

Books and Beyond

Ann Patchett was an author of the book The Dutch House, which I wrote about for Books & Beyond in 2020. I’m always brought into her books the way she writes about life. Early in These Precious Days, c 2021, she shares with her readers what books mean for her: Books were not just my education andmy entertainment. They were my partners. They told me what I was capable of. They let me stare a long way down the path of various possibilities so that I could make decisions (p. 31). She co-owns a bookstore, and the name of the store is Parnassus. I’ve always read books, even ...

Of foam and fur

Ahead of the firearms deer season, I pondered over my nature. An excitable guy, subject to the throes of adrenaline and emotion, fidgety and talkative, it’s a wonder I ever got into deer hunting at all, especially the kind I now enjoy most. After a couple seasons of walking hunting, a mentor introduced me to still hunting, and since then, I haven’t looked back. That’s usually because I’m seated against a steep hillside or the trunk of a large cottonwood tree to which my deer stand is attached and there’s nothing really to see in that direction anyway. But it’s also due to ...