300 words a day

Rich Dixon has an important language lesson. +++ I read an interesting story recently. Distilling out many details, it went like this: A man stood at a whiteboard and wrote five sentences. #1. John beat Mary. Active voice – clear about who did what to whom. #2. Mary was beaten by John. Do you see […]

The disciples are sitting on benches against the wall, on the floor, on stools. As Jesus talks, a child is by their mother, at the edges, in the shadows. Jesus catches the child’s attention and points to a small space on the bench between James and John. Maybe they were the child’s uncles. Or family […]

“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” It was a statement, not a question. John was telling Jesus about the loyalty of the disciples, of their commitment to protect the identity of this small group known as […]

I wrote this prayer a couple months into the pandemic. Lockdowns, restrictions, uncertainties. When I looked at it later, I realized that those particulars have changed. But the things in this prayer are actually still all true. So I’m using it again. And I understand that this is the day we call Mother’s Day. And […]

Feel free to plagiarize this today since I’m stealing it from myself: Hey friend/Sue/sister/Jim/dude- You’ve been on my mind this week/last night/for the past month. It’s been about a month/ year/ decade since your dad died/ since you changed jobs/ since we last talked/ since you set out on that cool quest/since you gave up […]