The day we lost our calico cat Elizabeth (pictured above at left) to an arterial blood clot, her pale ginger housemate Bryce (at right) hid under the bed. By evening, however, we were able to cajole him out to join us for kitty treats while we ate supper. For our usual ritual, in other words. … Continue reading Remembering a calico queen, a semi-feral little ‘scamperpuss’ and the joy — and heartache — of adopting rescue animals
Spiritual journal, Feb. 2025: Uff da! Trump’s ‘efficiency’ experts are going after the Lutherans now; bishops respond
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Liqz0VdZG1E Bishop Eaton: 'Our call to love our neighbors as ourselves remains steadfast.' Lightly edited copy of an email I sent to my spiritual director today in advance of our session for February, archived here so I can go back later and see what I was thinking about when I posted it. Taken together, these … Continue reading Spiritual journal, Feb. 2025: Uff da! Trump’s ‘efficiency’ experts are going after the Lutherans now; bishops respond
‘We’ve been here before’: A voice of Black lived experience as an openly racist administration prepares to take power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONN0BkwMF1g Mavis Staples, 'I'll Be Bested" (video by YouTube user biamaku, March 25 2012). Debi and I belong to a group affiliated with the Dominican sisters known as the Associates' Anti-Racism Committee (AARC for short). It's an offshoot of SDART (pronounced "ess-dart," an acronym for the Springfield Dominican Anti-Racism Team), an initiative that's succeeded in … Continue reading ‘We’ve been here before’: A voice of Black lived experience as an openly racist administration prepares to take power
One last post about Trump’s insult comedy shtick at that prayer breakfast — it’s time for us all to look in the mirror
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLDnhL648qI Morning Joe | MSNBC | February 7, 2020 I thought I'd gotten President Trump's performance at the National Prayer Breakfast out of my system with Thursday's post to Ordinary Time. I think of him as basically an insult comedian -- like Don Rickles, Joan Rivers and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, but smug and … Continue reading One last post about Trump’s insult comedy shtick at that prayer breakfast — it’s time for us all to look in the mirror
Notes on Mohammed Alaa’s cat shelter
dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH Anas Alkharboutli, "The cat man of Aleppo: rescuing battle-weary Syrian strays," The Guardian, Aug. 6, 2019 https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2019/aug/06/the-cat-man-of-aleppo-rescuing-battle-weary-syrian-strays. Pix of Mohammed Alaa Al-Jaleel rescuing animals in bombed-out Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun. I've written about him before -- here, with a quote from Mr. Rogers -- "look for the helpers" -- and … Continue reading Notes on Mohammed Alaa’s cat shelter
‘A harvest, crop of things sown’: White nationalist violence brings back memories of civil rights backlash, prize-winning editorial in The Atlanta Constitution
President Trump checked all the right boxes – well, some of the right boxes – after a self-identified white nationalist allegedly shot 22 people to death in El Paso to persuade “the Hispanic population … to return to their home countries.” Ignoring any echoes of his own earlier Twitterstorms urging migrants and "American-born congresswomen of … Continue reading ‘A harvest, crop of things sown’: White nationalist violence brings back memories of civil rights backlash, prize-winning editorial in The Atlanta Constitution
Ordinary Time 