I mulled over this post for weeks after I read the excellent article “The Sermon of the Wolf” by Eleanor Parker in the Summer 2022 issue of the Plough Quarterly. What encouraged me to complete the story was an article I read this morning – “The 1977 White House climate memo that should have changed …
Category Archives: Mind
Knucklebones
It was exactly 20 years ago (Flag Day 2002) when I chose to leave ‘corporate America’ to write a book. We published The Olympian, A Tale of Ancient Hellas six years later. It remains my ‘bestseller.’ Early in the story, Simonides and his traveling companions reach the harbor town of Itea and enter an inn …
Keep the Faith
The Book of Job is the 18th book of the Hebrew Bible. It is considered the first of five books of poetry in the Old Testament: Job – teaches us how to suffer Psalms – teach us how to pray Proverbs – teach us how to act Ecclesiastes – teaches us how to enjoy life …
Together
I read a Wendell Berry poem this morning, “They Sit Together on the Porch.” It reminded me of how it should be for people who have shared their lives for decades. Ten years ago when Mrs. tVM and I lived on the edge of the Saguaro National Park with little light pollution, we abandoned the …
We Are Never Alone
The Lenten season is a special one. By definition, Lent is a period of 40 days when Christians remember the events leading up to the passion and death of Jesus. The 40 days are called Lent after the old English word “lengðu” meaning ‘lengthen’ because Lent occurs as we approach summer when the days start …
Good Child Today… Good Person Tomorrow
As we complete the second full month of the Barefoot School in Cité Soleil, Haiti, our staff administers tests – midterms, if you will – to the hundreds of students who comprise our student body. The original 100 children we planned to serve has swelled to as many as 300 and we keep our doors …
Sportsmanship
Sportsmanship – fair and generous behavior and treatment of others – has been as important an aspect of my participation in athletic competition as an athlete and as a spectator as any other aspect of the game. In fact, good sportsmanship supersedes every other feature of the game in any sport and at any level. …
Love of Country
Fifty-one years ago – nearly to the day – I read Leon Uris’s novel of Berlin in the aftermath of WWII, Armageddon. I still retain that first edition though the dustcover no longer exists. I read the book over a weekend in the spring of my senior year at the United States Air Force Academy. …
I Hate When…
I first shared this video five years ago when I was somewhat active on social media. Far less active today, the video popped up as a ‘memory’ yesterday. I was compelled to share it again. In recent weeks, Mrs. tVM reports that grocery shelves are not stocked as we have become used to seeing them …
True, Good and Useful
This post first appeared a decade ago, in March 2012. Since then – from my perspective – things have only gotten worse. Forty years ago, I habitually read The New York Times from cover to cover. I trusted the writers who were committed to writing the truth and to attributing their facts to sources. Today, …