I suppose it has been a decade or more since “The Real Reason. . .” became so commonly used by headline writers. You see it used in what could be regarded as the most respectable media and by the bottom feeder rags. We might call it the Buzzfeedization of journalism. A quick search of Google News produced these examples (you can do your own investigation):

• The Real Reason Chick-fil-A’s Chicken Is Better Than All Others
• The Real Reason American Socialists Don’t Win
• The real reason Trump is deploying the National Guard across America
• Karl Urban Explains the Real Reason Behind Mortal Kombat II Delay
• The Real Reason Men Should Read Fiction
• The real reason Meghan Markle and Prince Harry quit royal life

Taking a cue from an opinion writer who argues “Political Gnosticism Is a Modern Sickness,” we might simply say “Gnosticism is a modern sickness.”  The “Real Reason” headlines are just one symptom of our sickness. Continue reading →

I am writing this on Tuesday, August 25, 2025, an appropriate day to reflect on 25 years of posts to an internet platform. Yes, exactly 25 years ago I sent the first of what would become the weekly E-pistle to the  members of Park Presbyterian Church in Beaver PA. We were just a little over two years into our time in Beaver. Not all the members received email (do you remember something called WebTV?) and those who did had to use some awful dial-up modem to get online but it was a start. Those were the days.

Blogging was to 2000 as podcasting is to 2025. Back then every pastor thought he needed to be a blogger. Today they want to be podcasters. The worldwide web is littered with the dry skeletons and decaying corpses of what were intended to be pastors’ blogs – and podcasts.

I wonder if my greatest success as a blogger has been in my persistence. I have posted week in and week out for 25 years. I took the E-Pistle with me when we moved to Langhorne on the other side of Pennsylvania, and for twelve and a half years it was the LPC E-pistle.  And now for five years of retirement in Indiana, “Observations.” Over a thousand, maybe 1,500, posts. Or maybe my greatest success is in the grace of readers, who for 25 years, week by week, have read what I post. Perseverance of the saints, they call it.

Happy anniversary to me. Continue reading →

I learned long ago that it is best if I call a plumber when the faucet is dripping or an electrician when the lights are flickering. My attempts at do-it-yourself fixits have not typically ended well. Ask Becky about the last time I changed the oil and filter on our car. Hint: it was 1985. So, yes, thank goodness for Jiffy Lube.

When you are mechanically challenged, as I am, it is best to put the wrench down slowly, turn around, pick up the phone, and call someone who knows what they are doing.

I have been thinking about fixits and calling the experts as several situations are unfolding in areas of my life where I may have some responsibility. There are several, and the details don’t matter, other than to say these are situations where wires may be sparking, trust is slowly dripping away, and the check engine light has begun to flash.

I am tempted to pick up my wrench and try to fix what needs to be fixed. Continue reading →

If all goes according to plans, Becky and I leave for a long-anticipated trip to Brazil seven weeks from today. We’ll see some sights and we will see some friends! In preparation for good conversations with our friends, we are brushing up on our Brazilian Portuguese using an online course we really like. Professora Virginia is a Brazilian who has lived in New York City for a dozen years. She knows both American and Brazilian cultures and is a gifted teacher.

The other day I was working through a lesson Virginia titled “Don’t Be Rude! How to be polite in Brazilian Portuguese.”  The main takeaway is to avoid stand-alone imperatives, “Help me with this.” And instead to use the “futuro do pretérito,” or conditional verb tense, along with a “por favor.” “Would you help me with this, please?”  Yes, it’s always a good idea to be polite, especially if you are a stranger in a strange land. Continue reading →

Some of you may be familiar with Dunbar’s Number and the ideas it represents. Though there is hardly consensus that British anthropologist Robin Dunbar has the thing right, there is an intuitive sense that his broad strokes paint a picture of a reality we recognize. Dunbar’s number (150) suggests there are certain human capacities that limit the number of people in a series of relational circles, 150 being the most “meaningful” contacts any one of us might have. According to Dunbar, “the tightest (relational) circle has just five people – loved ones. That’s followed by successive layers of 15 (good friends), 50 (friends), 150 (meaningful contacts), 500 (acquaintances) and 1500 (people you can recognise). People migrate in and out of these layers, but the idea is that space has to be carved out for any new entrants.”

I have been thinking about Dunbar’s number on my slow morning runs through our neighborhood. The run itself has been especially delightful in recent days as the weather has cooled and the sun arrives just a bit later each morning, sometimes coloring the clouds in yellow, orange, and pink. Continue reading →