Along with a group of Christian friends, I just sat through the controversial documentary Jesus Camp . The movie profiles a fundamentalist group of Pentecostal Christians on their quest to "teach" the next generation what it means to follow Christ into "battle." The children in this film, all appearing to be…
A T-shirt
I'm sitting cross legged on my bed. My freshly washed hair is hanging in damp, dripping tendrils. I am flushed and warm. There are few feelings better than this, clean and relaxed, facing nothing but a weekend of low key fun after a night of sleeping soundly next to my…
Eating an Elephant
How do you eat an elephant? The correct answer: First, cut it into little pieces. The Salinger answer: Drag it deep into a cave, all alone, and attempt to swallow it whole. Or, declare that anyone who would eat an elephant is beneath contempt and then stalk off in the…
struggle for stillness
control yourself. stop. loose your hair. open your palms. alone. sit. think. be free.…
She loves the Desolation in Death Valley...
We see rocks rubbed raw by the sand and eons of devilish heat. Some places, the rise of dirt from valley into foothills is as graceful and pink as the naked thigh of a woman nestled in mauve bed sheets. The terrain is alien... from the odd extra terrestrial shapes…
Pink and Blue
There is a side to my personality which, for a long time, I classified as "boyish." This wasn't a term I came up with on my own. I grew up around a lot of boys, but I simply assumed we acted the same way because we were children... not because…
Splitting the Coconut
Jonathan took careful aim and leveled a firm blow with his hammer at the circumference of the hairy, brown coconut in his hand. The crack resounded in our kitchen and made Cindy and I giggle with wonder. Jon gave the coconut a quarter turn and whacked it again. This time,…
Lyrical Faith
Often I find myself in concert in my car. Air microphone. Head dance choreography. I do it all. On the freeway. In the parking lot. Pulling into my garage. I do it everywhere. For Christmas, my friend Amy gave me two gifts. One was a charitable donation in my name,…