Publishing My Concerns, 35 Years and Counting.

 In April 1990 I wrote my first letter to the editor.  It was published in the April 27th edition of the Daily Herald, a suburban Chicago newspaper.  Over the years I have written many letters to the editor of various newspapers.  After writing one for my college newspaper that was fairly well received, I was asked to be a regular columnist for the paper.  I had previous experience before 1990 in editorializing when I was self-publishing a small newsletter and mailing it out to my friends.  I have also freely shared my opinions on this blog and other computer venues since the geo-cities days. But,  April 1990 is what  I will always consider the beginning of my public spouting of opinions.

 Recently, I obtained a copy of that original letter. My letter was inspired by a column I had read in the Daily Herald a few weeks earlier. I am reprinting it here in it's original form, including the size of the columns when it appeared in print.   Please note I did not write the headline.

Reaction to Trump

As I read Burt Constable's column 
 on April 15 about Moslems reaction
 to Donald Trump's Taj Mahal, it got 
me wondering what a Christian's re- 
action to the Taj should be.

As Constable mentioned, the Taj,
Trump's $1 billion dollar gambling den has 
chandeliers alone that cost $14 mil-
lion. Fourteen million dollars. Do 
you know how many people you can
feed with that money? How many
non profit organizations could go out
of debt? You could probably even pay four or 
five pro athletes' salaries on that a
year, but that's another story.

Donald Trump's very name has

become synonymous with conspicu-

ous consumption, greed and arro-

gance. He is now linking himself

with gambling more and more.

The Bible is clear that it is of little

good if you gain riches at the ex-

pense of your soul. But Trump has 

shaped an empire that glorifies and

leads people towards wanting to

make more and more and spend it on

their own pleasures.  

The renowned mathematician

Pascal said that within each heart

there lies a God shaped vacuum that

can only be filled by Him. Why is 

Donald Trump not satisfied with all

he has amassed? Because he is shov-

ing money, power, and Taj Mahals

galore in that vacuum and still com-

ing up wanting. If he was not, why 

the overriding desire to gain the 

whole world?

Christian's need to be appalled by

buildings like Trump's Taj not be-

cause they desecrate a symbol but

because they desecrate a system:

giving everything of yourself for the

express glory of God. Trump lives 

like the dollar sign should be our 

symbol rather than the Cross.

It was not lost on me that my first foray in editorializing was about Donald Trump who is a frequent topic of my opinion based writings.  It is somewhat surprising that my description of Trump form 35 years ago still resonates with me.  The truth is that from before I wrote this piece until He began running for President in 2015, I didn't really pay much attention to Trump. I watched the occasional episode of The Apprentice, but that was about it.  Even when I wrote this piece, Trump was more of a counter example of what Christians should be focusing on. I just enjoy taking ideas like Constable's that Moslems should be offended by calling a Casino the Taj Mahal and turning it on it's side, in this case to  explore if people other than Moslems should be offended as well.  I chose Christians, particularly Bible believing Christians, because that what I was, and am still.  

I still like to employ that strategy in my opinion pieces.  It's like Editorial Jazz, I take a piece and riff on it it in a different direction that reflects the point I want to make.  In fact I am contemplating writing another letter to the Daily Herald using my first letter as a starting point to ponder Trump's popularity among my people, Bible believing Christians.  If I ever produce those 300 words or so I'll post it here as well.  Haven't come to the point where I know exactly what I'll say yet, but as I sometimes do I already have a title, "Trump hasn't changed, have Evangelicals?".

Weekly Writer's Workshop: 10 of my favorite Comic Strips

Here are the prompts for this week’s Writer’s Workshop: 

1.  Write a post based on the word shopping. 
2. Write a post in exactly 10 sentences. 
3. List ten of your favorite comic strips (from the newspaper). 
4. Write about a time when you laughed at an inappropriate time. 
5. Write about a joke (practical or otherwise) that did not go over well. 
6. List things you oddly obsessed about as a child.
   

I love comic strips.  I think I always have and I'm pretty sure I always will.  

Here are 10 of my favorite strips but not my favorite 10 strips

Rubes by Leigh Rubin

This is actually my favorite strip of Rubes.  I remember reading it in the Western Courier (my school campus newspaper). To learn more about Rubes click here.

Frank & Ernest by Thaves

The rest of the strips with images are not my favorite strip of the series I'm using them because I have previously used them on this or one of my other blogs.  This strip is a good representation of the regular content over the years. for more about Frank & Ernest click here.

Mister Boffo by Joe Martin

Along with Calvin & Hobbes, Peanuts & The Far Side, Mister Boffo, is probably one of my favorite 4  comic strips of all time.  The strip below while very representational of Martin's humor is definitely not up to his usual standards. For more Mister Boffo strips click here.

Non-Sequtir - Wiley Miller

Many of the Out There Comics like Far Side and Rubes   take place in a panel rather than a strip.  I think this is why I like Non-Sequtir so much it often appears in strip form strip rather than a panel.  For more about Non-Seutir click here.

Big Nate by Lincoln Pierce

The strip below embodies the titular character very well.  For more about Big Nate click here.

Animal Crackers By Mike Osburn

While Animal Crackers is a comic strip that appears in newspapers, this is not how I first digested it.  I remember strips being excerpted in some of my middle school textbooks and discovered it in newspaper version years later. For more Animal Crackers click here.

For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston

Paramount Pictures, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

.

The above picture has nothing to do with the aforementioned comic strip.It's just I did not have permission to post any of the above strips but only used them since I had already used them on blogger before.  The above images or from the 1919 Cecille B Demille silent film For Better For Worse.

For Better or For Worse is a family comic strip that is humorous but also more realistic than many comic strips of it's era.  One way it was more realistic was the stylistic choice to age the family in real time.  At some point Johnston reversed the aging process and began telling the family story anew.  For examples of the strip click here.  

The Far Side by Gary Larson

I love The Far Side.  Gary Larson has a bizarre sense of humor and his artistic style blends very well with that humor.  One of my favorite strips is where you see a cat following signs scrawled out that say Cat Fud.  The signs eventually end at the inside door or a dryer,  While the cat appears to be following those signs into the dryer.  You can see dog waiting on the other side of the door ready to push it closed if the cat goes in.  The thought bubble above the dog says "Please! Let this work! For examples of the Far Side Strip click here.

Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson

Calvin & Hobbes originally ran from November 18, 1985, to December 31st, 1995. Words cannot really describe what a wonderful experience it was for me to spend 10 years with Calvin and his stuffed tiger.  I adored every scrape they got in and don't really have a favorite strip.   Since I recently turned 60, I decided to put a link to the Calvin & Hobbes Strip from when I turned 30. The Strip features Calvin's Love Interest/nemesis. Susie Derkins.  It also use the phrase opposite day which is a phrase we use around the house quite a bit and I was unaware that Calvin ever talked about the concept.

Peanuts By Charles M Schulz

By Samsz - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5250404765

I have tried hard not to rank these comic strips or even say that they are my top 10 favorites. They are just 10 of my favorites. Peanuts, however, will always be my favorite strip. I'm sure that my love for comics strips grew from my love for Peanuts.  I once tried to learn French, just so I could read the French edition of a Peanuts anthology  at our library.  This strip is from the day I was born.  For more  Peanuts click here.

For more of this weeks Writers workshop click here.  

Veterans of Grief

 I'm sure I have written a post like this before with a similar title.  I am taking another stab at the subject.  My youngest brother Keith was born on Nov 11th 1970 aka Veterans Day. .  This is the 54th anniversary of his birth. I was born in September of 1964, so I was already 6 years old when he was born. 

. Keith's last Veteran's Day was 16 years ago when he turned 38. He died 5 months later in an Elgin nursing home when I was 44. Since then I've turned 60 and he's perpetually 38. Keith loved math and I'm pretty sure if he was still around he'd call me up today to announce that he had now been alive for  90% of my lifetime. The truth is that he was on;y alive 63.33% of my lifetime time and that number goes down each year I outlive him.   

Now Keith would want me to provide a more accurate accounting of that number by factoring in the 5 months between his 38th birthday and that day in April of 2009 when he shuffled off this mortal coil.  Let's be real, Keith would want me to calculate the percentage down to at least the day, factoring in the leap days as well.  He probably wouldn't be satisfied with even that and want it down to the last minute.  

But That's not what I would want.  What I would want of course, is that his multiple health problems were all resolved and that he was here with us celebrating his full deck plus 2 jokers (that's 54th please try to keep up)  birthday with us.  What I would want is that his children now in their 20s would still have their Dad with them instead of hardly remembering him or not remembering him at all.  What I would want, is that instead of struggling to recall his legendary dumb jokes, there would be another 15 1/2 years worth of them to smile and nod at. But I did not get what I wanted. Instead, I got grief. Now Veterans Day means more than just Keith's birthday to me.  It reminds me that I'm a veteran, a veteran of grief.  

I'm going to spend the rest of this post unpacking the last sentence of the previous paragraph. When Keith died Amy and I had been attending a small group at our church for only a few weeks.  We knew the leader of the small group pretty well because he was the children's ministry pastor and all our children were in the children's ministry at the time and we were both volunteering there.  So when he showed up at Keith's visitation I wasn't too surprised.  What did surprise me, however, was that the couple whose house the small group met at came to the visitation. We had just met them a few weeks before.  They didn't have children, and they didn't attend the same service as we did. It really meant a lot that he came.  He explained to me that a few years before when his father had died, he had a similar experience.  Some people he hardly knew came to the funeral because they had lost someone and knew how important it was having people there not only to pay respect to the person they lost but to also be there for those who had lost someone.  Both the couple who came to Keith's visitation and the people who had gone to his Dad's funeral had one thing in common, they were veterans of grief.

When I think of a war veteran I think of someone who's been through something devastating and life-altering and has been permanently changed by it.  Grief has that same effect on you. There is something else I've learned about veterans they try to be there for each other.  There is a camaraderie, a family bond. It's a community that doesn't require serving in the same unit or even the same war.  The same could be said about a veteran of grief.  I don't know if this is true of all veterans be it war, grief, or something else.  But as I dealt with losing Keith, empathy for those encountering the same thing grew in me.  I was never one to shy away from the funerals of people I knew, but I started gravitating to the funerals of family members of people I knew. As a veteran of grief, I have been able to comfort people and try to help in tangible ways as people begin their journeys with loss and grief.  

Keith is often front and center in my heart and mind during these times.  I have not yet lost someone closer than a sibling and have not experienced what it is like to lose a child, a parent, or a spouse.  I have done my best to comfort those who have lost more significant people in the time since Keith's passing. A dear friend lost his father and wife in short order.  I have to be honest I can't imagine losing Amy.  I know it would devastate me completely and while I know God would bring me through it, I know it's just a drop in the bucket in comparison to losing Keith. Amy herself lost both her parents within a few years of each other.  It broke my heart to see her "orphaned" knowing that her loss was far greater than mine.  Yet knowing how God has helped me through this lesser loss of Keith has helped inform me how I can minister to others as they become more experienced with grief.  

I still miss Keith, especially on days like today.  Tomorrow my remaining brother and I head over to Keith's house to help his widow with some practical needs.  It will be bittersweet just a day after his birthday.  All my siblings have tried to look out for our sister-in-law and our niece and nephew and I think we would all say that we wished we could do more.  In sports veteran players often act as a surrogate coaches to rookies and other new team members.  Grief is not a team that anyone chooses to play for. Isaiah 53:3 prophesies about Jesus describing Him as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  Jesus, His word, and His people have equipped me as a veteran of grief.  I'm not sure if I'm paying forward, or pointing backward but regardless of the direction I'm so glad to try to be there for others when grief has them upside down. 

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Weekly Writer's Workshop: Brand Names and Store Brands, and Fictional Lands. Oh My.

 John Holton from The Sound of  One Hand Typing is hosting the Weekly Writers Workshop.  Here are his prompts for the week.  (I am doing the ones in bold.)

Here are the prompts for this week’s Writer’s Workshop: 

1.  Write a post based on the word rules. 
2. Write a post in exactly 9 sentences. 
3. When you grocery shop, do you prefer “name” (i.e. national) brands or “store” (or generic) brands? Or a combination of the two? Why? 
4. Tell us about something you learned in October. 
5. If you could spend a year living in a fictional world, which one would it be, and what would you do while you were there? 
   
6. Do you think you would be a good leader of your country (e.g. president, prime minister etc.)? Why or why not?

National Brands or Store Brands

Generally speaking, I'm a generic or store brand guy.  There are multiple reasons for this.  One, I generally like most foods and don't notice a big difference between store brands and name brands.  Two, I like the savings that shopping at a store like Aldi produces in my budget.  In fact, I quite prefer the Aldi brand brownie mix to any other brand name brownie mixes out there.   We often still refer to the Aldi products by their brand-name counterparts;   Aldi Sandwich cookies are Fake Oreos and  Aldi Woven Wheat crackers are Fake Triscuits.  

That being said, there are some brand-name items that I will spend more money on.  I think one of the reasons for that is that most of these items are "splurge" items so since I'm buying them infrequently I don't mind the occasional additional expense.  Nutter Butter cookies, for example, don't always have a store brand equivalent and they are good for an occasional treat.

My Fictional Sabbatical

If I could spend a year living in a fictional world it would definitely be the land of Narnia.  You may think that I'm too old to enter Narnia.  But some adults like the Cabby and the Cabby's wife (The Magician's Nephew) have entered Narnia.  So there is hope for me.  As for what I would do there,  While I wouldn't mind meeting Reepicheep the mouse, or going to the parliament of Owls,I would do whatever the adventure Aslan brings me.  This is a common phrase used in many of the Chronicles of Narnia books by C.S. Lewis, who just happens to be my favorite author. One advantage of spending a year in Narnia is that no time would pass while I was in Narnia, so I would not miss a single minute of my time with my family.  I enjoy my life with them much more than any fictional world could afford me.  

If you'd like to participate or see other submissions to this week's workshop click here.  

"Recent" Posts from my Blog Roll

Blog Insider: An unsolicited and superfluous look beyond the minutiae 

 Today's Episode: Recent Posts from My Blog Roll

What is a Blog Roll?

It is a list of other blogs that appears on a sidebar of blogs and websites.  Each blog listed contains a link to the blog and often contains a link to the most recent post.  Some will include a snippet of the most recent post, and the date last posted.

Are Blog Rolls still popular?

Blog Rolls used to be a very popular feature of blogs because they were an easy way to find other blogs to follow.  Just as blogs have lost popularity over the years blog rolls have as well.  One of these is due to technological advances.  At the height of blogging popularity computers were the main way blogs were accessed.  Now that cell phones are supreme, many people access blogs on those or on iPads.  When you access a blog on a phone, the blog looks different and a lot of the features like a blogroll can not be seen readily.  On my phone, I can switch to the regular computer view on the bottom of my screen but I assume very few people do that.  Also, many people just subscribe to blog content and don't access the entire blog that way.

Call me a Blogosaur.

I continue to use my blog and format ir like it was 2009.  I use my blogroll as a way of keeping up with my favorite blogs and even in my lean months (June through October) when I'm not posting as much, I am still on my blog using it to access the most recent posts from other blogs that I follow.  

I currently have 53 blogs listed on my main blogroll.  I have them listed by hy how recently they posted so the most current content keeps on coming to the top.  I do list on my blog roll how recent the posts are so I can tell you that as of 1:00 p.m. central time today (November 5th) I  follow fourteen blogs that have posted in the last 24 hours. Nineteen more blogs were posted at least once in the last week.  An additional eight more were posted between a week and a month ago. Seven more were posted between a month and 6 months ago, leaving five more posted in the last 12 months.  On another blog roll that I have titled" These blogs are so last year,"  there are 3 blogs that haven't been posted on for over 12 months. For the rest of this post, I will link 1 blog from each of these categories and state how I've come to follow it,

Posted in the last 24 hours

For the most part, the blogs that fit into this category are blogs that post very frequently often with multiple posts a day.  This isn't always the case, sometimes I might catch a blog that only posts every 5 or 6 weeks immediately after their recent post.  But as I said, for the most part, these are blogs that are constantly providing new content.

The Sound of One Hand Typing  is a blog I have discovered through my association with the A to Z blogging challenge that takes place every April.  The most recent post by John Holton is his prompts for the Weekly Writers Workshop that he holds on his blog.  I have participated in this the past few weeks and hope to join the fun again later this week.

Posted in the past week.  

The blogs here could be of the variety where they post on average once or more e  a week or they could be recent posts of blogs that blog a little more sporadically than that. Lindy Scott is someone I've mentioned on my blog multiple times.  Back in the mid 80's he was one of my first pastors, and has been both a mentor and hero of mine.  He has recently retired from a career in academia as a professor of Political Science.  His most recent post is called "Trump's Plan to Eliminate the Federal Income Tax: Why would any Sane Person Support it?" Its title indicates that it is an analysis and critique of Trump's most recent idea,  

Posted in the last month.  

\Some of these blogs are updated every 10 days or so and some of them are updated quarterly or more it just depends at what point you catch them.  Andy Unedited is one of my favorite blogs about literature, editing, publishing, and biblical living.  What else would you expect from a former editor at Inter-Varsity Press?  Andy Le Peau's most recent post, A True to Life Allegory, a review of a book that combines John Bunyan's A Pilgrim's Progress with Peter Kreeft's  Between Heaven and Hell.  It sounds intriguing as it intertwines two of my favorite books by two of my favorite authors,   The retired editor did spell Bunyan wrong, but, then again,  he once wrote a post called Confessions of a Bad Speller, so that's understandable.

Posted in the last 6 months

The 6 blogs listed here run the gamut from "where blogs go to die" (formerly prolific posters now on their last legs), semi-whenever posters, and some who are still on hiatus after finishing the April A to Z blog fest.  Another Fearless Year may look like it's on its way out.  After averaging over 80 posts per year between 2019 and 2021, it has only generated 18 posts since then.  I am hopeful, however as two of those posts were in September of this year.  The most recent of which, Grief, A Brief Description, is an excellent poem.

Posted in the last year

This is a kind of an endangered blog list.  Some of these still publish but are now on yu tube or another type of platform.  Some only post during the A to Z challenge which now ended over 6 months ago.  The A to Z challenge blog is an excellent example of the latter.  Its most recent post is about the A to Z Road Trip.

Posted more than a year ago

At midnight on New Year's Day each year, I change the name of my blog roll to "These Blogs are so last year."   As the blogs post new content,  I remove them from that blogroll and then decide whether to put them on the new blogroll or part company with the blog. Generally, by the end of March, almost all these blogs have posted again.  There are always some stragglers.  The Star Trek Sci-Fi Blog  , for example, went 22 months between January of 2023 and October of 2024 in between content. I just changed blog rolls on it at the end of this month. 3 blogs have not added content since 2023 and I really don't expect any of them to do so before the end of the year.  One, near and dear to my heart, is a blog I encourage my oldest daughter to share her poetry. The last poem she shared on the blog was called Growing Up. Fortunately, she has other outlets for her poetry and continues to write just not on her blog.

The deep dive into the minutiae of this blog is over for now.  But when I thin of more information less exciting than watching paint dry, Ill be certain to share it again.