We are on the road again. Becky and I are flying to Washington state today and then on Sunday begin a five-day, 3-car, six-children, four-adult, 1800-mile trip to Missouri where our son Christopher begins his work as an active-duty chaplain in the U.S. Air Force  If all goes well, we will be back in Auburn on Saturday, June 5.

But I am thinking about being on the road in another sense.

I will run in the way of your commandments
    when you enlarge my heart! Psalm 119:32 (ESV)

I have been a runner of sorts most of my adult life. Typically in the morning. Typically around the neighborhood. Typically not very fast. I’ve run a few 5k or 10k races, and even won a medal once when the field was small and there were only two or three of us in my age category.

For the past eighteen months or so, however, I have not been running. The pandemic. Retirement. Moving. I have my excuses. In fact, I had been thinking about not returning to running. Becky and I have a nice walking routine, and with no knee or hip problems after having run most of my adult life, I thought it might be time to quit while I was ahead.

But I like running. Maybe it’s the endorphins. Continue reading →

Early in their retirement, my mother and father wrote autobiographies of a sort. 122 and 177 typed pages respectively, neither is a literary gem, but each reflects the personality of its author and is full of stories and recollections that are a wonderful link to the past.  While mostly telling family stories, world events appear in both narratives, none more so than the Second World War.

I thought of my parents and their stories of the end of the war as some people think maybe we have come to a possible end of the pandemic.  Even if it is the end, it doesn’t look as if we’ll have any Victory over Covid celebrations.

My mother had graduated from college a year earlier, and in May 1945, was living in New York City with some of her college friends.  They had found an apartment on the Upper Westside.  She tells the story of her May 7, V-E, Victory in Europe, Day: We all rode the subway down to Times Square where a milling mass of humanity was celebrating. Then we went to Radio City and got tickets to the Perry Como Show.  There he was sitting on his stool singing about when the lights go on all over the world. We took the Staten Island Ferry across the harbor and saw the Statue of Liberty lighted up for the first time since the war had begun.

My father was a Navy officer serving in the Mediterranean. He writes, Rumors began to spread that the war in Europe was soon coming to a conclusion, and that our ship would be returned to the States, converted into a rocket ship and sent to the Pacific War…All ships present began to prepare to leave the Mediterranean. We joined a large convoy and headed west. We passed through the Straits of Gibraltar and soon pulled into port in the Azores. Continue reading →

I know as much about Bill and Melinda Gates as most of us know, which isn’t much.  I know they are very rich and are doing their best to put their money to good use.  That is enough to know to have felt very sad when I read the news of their impending divorce after twenty-seven years of marriage.

I don’t know much about the Gateses or their relationship – not mine to know, but the end of a marriage is a sad thing no matter what the circumstance.

I would not have had much more to say about Monday’s news were it not for a Wednesday headline. If Bill and Melinda Gates can’t make a marriage work, what hope is there for the rest of us? a column in the Washington Post “Relationships” section asked.

It takes a lot to make a marriage work. Marriage is not for the easily discouraged, and only a fool rushes in with advice and suggestions about another’s marriage.  With a certain fear of treading on dangerous ground, then, I offer that there is hope for the rest of us. Continue reading →

My friend Rein died this past Tuesday.  Some of you knew him and some did not. Those who knew Rein will remember him with a thousand stories and much laughter mingled with our sorrow. Rein was one of those people whose presence filled the room, whose way of doing things was just part of who he was. He made us laugh. The contours of his life from his birth in Nazi-occupied Holland to the loss of a leg as a college athlete to his successes in business and community work to his faithfulness in and to the church are of the stuff that inspire us. His beloved Brenda and their family was always his greatest joy.

Many of us called Rein a friend and, yes, we will remember him with a thousand stories. Continue reading →