There was a time when it must have been incredibly difficult to understand anything you read because there was absolutely no punctuation in existence and nobody used capital letters either so that all the words just followed one after the other and the only way you could understand them was to put in the effort to try and figure out just what the writer was trying to say so you could make some sense out of that long string of letters in front of you. See what I mean? Without punctuation, writing is…well…pointless. That’s right; punctuation is a fairly new invention. Well, that’s...

The last time we went to Ireland, we spent a day taking a bus-tour of the Wicklow Mountains (such as they are. North Americans have to laugh a little at what the Irish call “mountains”.). We went through the village of Avoca where the BBC series, Ballykissangel was filmed, and then to the ancient monastic village established by Saint Kevin back in 540 CE called Glendaloch. The Village gets its name from the twin lakes less than a mile or so down the road from the village. Glendaloch is Gaelic for “two lakes”. The buildings there are simple, stone buildings, built to withstand the...

My wife and I went to a wedding on Saturday. The daughter of one of our best friends got married. We’ve known the bride ever since she was a baby. I can remember her when her mother held her in her arms. We have watcher her grow from a babe to a beautiful young…well…babe. And now, we watched her make the most important commitment of her life. One of our other best friends, an Irish Priest, came all the way from Ireland to perform the ceremony. It was just beautiful. But all this folksy crap has nothing to do with anything except that we went to a wedding. Whenever I go to a...

I once had a friend in high school and we were very close. We signed each other’s yearbooks “friends 4 ever!” We were both in music classes together. He was highly skilled at playing the piano. He had been playing since he was four years old. He could also play the organ quite well, and that’s a difficult instrument to play. He lived with his dad very close to the high school. His father was a tax accountant. Although, I was never invited to his house. I was too much of a hippy, and he didn’t think his dad would approve of me. He was also very religious. He went to church...

One of the things about what happens in the typical public school just bugs the hell out of me. You see, we have the best office staff you could possibly imagine. Without them, the school simply could not function. They type all the letters going home. They fill the supply orders. They translate things that need translating. They take care of sick kids who end up in the office when the nurse isn’t there. They keep an eye on the kids who are in the office for disciplinary reasons until the principal can see them. They field telephone calls from parents. They are simply the best. And yet,...

I think there is a reason why most churches are filled with old people. I don’t think it’s because old people are getting closer to death and are afraid of the great unknown. And I don’t think it’s because “the church” (whatever church or religion) has nothing to say to young people. I think it’s just because most young people are busy building their lives. They are going to school, getting jobs, finding true love–or at least a reasonable facsimile, having children, buying houses, cars, dogs, cats, lawnmowers and kitchen cabinets. When you’re driving the car, sometimes...

As I sit here this morning writing this, I am in pain.  My back has gone into spasm again.  It does that from time to time.  It’s a drag having a bad back.  Anybody can tell you that.  So when I get up to go into the kitchen to get a soda or something, I’ll be walking like Groucho Marx ( I realize this reference is lost on younger folks—go watch A Night at the Opera—it’s really funny).  Oh well.  It happens.  It will get better, please God. There have been plenty of times in my life when I’ve been in trouble, broke, in danger, scared, sick, worried, and I’ve prayed, prayed...

Let me tell you a story about something that happened to me when I was six years old. We lived in the back of my parent’s business, Wilson’s Plastic Engraving. There was a shop in front, and, attached to the shop, was a two bedroom house. Behind the house was a back yard. Behind the yard was a small apartment building with two apartments downstairs and one apartment upstairs. I don’t think I ever saw our downstairs neighbors, but our upstairs neighbor was an elderly lady. One day, I was playing in the back yard doing typical six year old boy stuff when the old lady walked up...

Sometimes people can be a bit thick. I know this. I’m a teacher. I’m a professional. So you can take it from me that people, well, kids at least, if you want to call kids people, can be a bit thick. For example, the other day I was teaching the kids about prepositional phrases. Don’t worry. I’m not going to try to teach you about prepositional phrases. Anyway, I told the kids that a prepositional phrase consisted of a preposition and a noun. I said that prepositional phrases always, as in ALWAYS, begin with a preposition. So then I asked a kid to identify the prepositional...

It was my youngest son’s birthday yesterday. He’s thirty-three years old. He once told me that what he remembers most from his childhood are the stories I used to tell him. I wasn’t even aware that I was telling him stories. I was just trying to be a good dad and help him grow in the right direction. So I told him stories in order to teach him lessons. That was long before I became a teacher. Once I became a teacher, I learned that was a good way to teach. You should start with what you know. If a person can see how one thing is like something he or she already knows, it is...