I have to say that as a teacher, it is from time to time really frustrating when your students don’t get it. I mean, you go over something and you explain everything, and you try to make things clear, and most of the students get it, but there’s always some who just don’t get it. So you try to explain things yet another way. You draw pictures. You do whatever you have to do, and sometimes you just exhaust your mind, and they still don’t get it. This is particularly true when you try to teach ten-year-olds about fractions and how to add them. Kids have a hard time...

here is something come between us Unseen and yet as solid as a stone A voice that screams While words remain unspoken Regrets and dreams Pass for thoughts unknown I pretend that I don’t see it But it’s there, and it does not let me rest It pinches me Like a pebble in my shoe Has come to be A hunger in my chest I have crafted it stone by stone This wall between us solidly I built With what I’ve done And what I have failed to do And then I run Away from all my guilt There is no place for me to go This prison has been all my own design It was, you see A moment without thinking If...

I was thinking about how much time I spend watching television the other night. And I thought how weird the extra-terrestrials would think it that our race of somewhat sentient beings sits in front of a box that makes pictures hour after hour. And then I thought to myself, “Myself,” I thought, “I guess we just like stories.” We like to watch stories. We like to hear stories. We like to tell stories. As soon as we get together with our friends and loved ones, we start telling stories. Anyone who has been married or even part of a family knows that you will hear the same stories...

I’m going to tell you a nice story. It’s from the Bible. Now don’t go away, I promise not to preach or evangelize. I hate it when people do that. It’s just a nice story. And I think there something in it from which anyone can learn. You don’t need to know anything about the bible or Jesus, or anything. It’s just a nice story. You all know this much, that according to the story (remember, you don’t have to believe it) Jesus was crucified up on a cross and died. Then, after being in the tomb for three days, he is supposed to have risen from the dead. And then, after he rose...

It’s pretty easy to attack religious faith. After all, the stories you read in holy books are pretty far fetched. Those books are full of miracles and wonders and basically shit you don’t see on a day to day basis. When was the last time you saw somebody walking on the water, or talking to a burning bush (besides Karl Rove)? What makes things even harder to have faith are the holy rolling idiots who seem to think that the only way you can be saved is if you check your brain at the church door. Moreover, those holy books were all written long after any of those events took place....

Well, we just came back from our annual trip to Big Sur.  With the economy being what it is, I’m not sure we’ll be able to go again next year.  I hope we can.  It would be sad if we couldn’t  go.  We’ve been going up there now for twenty-three years.  We just love that place. For those of you who don’t know California, Big Sur is an area in the Ventana Wilderness about thirty miles south of Monterrey.  Monterrey is the setting for one of John Steinbeck’s most wonderful books, CANNERY ROW.    At one time Monterrey was the capital of California, back when we used to belong to...

Gather round children and I will tell you the sad tale of Lloyd Loar. Lloyd Loar was a genius when it came to designing stringed musical instruments. Today his instruments sell for in excess of $100,000. His F5 Mandolin, manufactured by the Gibson Company is the veritable Holy Grail of mandolins. Lloyd Loar was a modern day Stradivarius. Lloyd was born in 1883. He loved physics, geometry and music. After high school he went to study music at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. Prolific on five musical instruments, Lloyd focused on the mandolin because that was what people wanted to hear. It...

Today we celebrate the most important Christian holiday of the entire year. We will do this by painting eggs and eating chocolate bunny rabbits and bizarre mounds of marshmallow and sugar known as peeps. And while scholars, such as myself, are more interested in the origins of the fabled peeps, somehow it seems appropriate that I turn my attention toward the even stickier subject of the origins of Easter. There is always that danger when digging into the history of any subject that you are going to uncover information which may challenge or shake your faith in long held beliefs. And I am not sure...

Very, very early in the morning, while it was still dark outside, Mary, a woman from Magdala, and one of the closest of those who followed Jesus around for three years, went to the his grave and found that the tomb had been opened. There had been a large stone placed over the opening, but the stone had been lifted off. So, finding this somewhat upsetting, she ran back to where Peter and John were. She told them of her findings. She said that someone had taken the master. Peter and John immediately ran, John running a little faster than the older Peter, to where the tomb was and saw the...

The other day, up in Big Sur, as we were taking a short hike up to Pfeiffer Falls along a beautiful little trail in Pfeiffer State Park, I was thinking of my friend Paul. Paul used to love that hike. For one thing, it is a pretty hike. The trail is lined with sycamore, laurel (thanks Beth), and giant coastal redwoods. The path meanders back and forth over a small creek that bubbles and jumps over rocks and fallen branches. The trees rise like the walls of a gothic cathedral casting shady shadows everywhere. And for another thing, it is an easy hike. The whole trip, to the falls and back,...