Wouldn’t it be nice if fear took a holiday; maybe a permanent vacation even? Well, that kind of depends on what kind of fear we are talking about, doesn’t it? There is a fear that cripples. But there is also a fear that motivates. There is a fear that terrorizes. But there is also a… Read More ›

In Dickens’ “Dombey and Son,” Mr. Dombey is an arrogant, unyielding man. But he is the same prideful man in private as he is in public. He treats those considered beneath him as if they were, well, beneath him. No one even considered accusing him of being duplicitous. Horrible. Yes. But not a hypocrite. Mr…. Read More ›

In Greek mythology, the trickster king of Corinth, by the name of Sisyphus, is punished for tricking Hades the god of death. His punishment was to spend eternity pushing a large stone up a hill, only to have the stone roll back down again. So, over and over again, he must push the stone up… Read More ›

It is Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” You know, a young man who puts all of his emphasis on appearance. He is a beautiful young man and wants to stay that way. But he also wants to be a horrible person; a user and ruination of other persons. He is… Read More ›

I wear corrective lenses. I did not choose to be visionally impaired. No one blames me for being near sighted. They may make fun of my lack of sight or my glasses or, you know, whatever people tend to make fun of, but they don’t blame me. That would be ridiculous. It’s not like I… Read More ›

Psalm 34:8 says “O taste and see that the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” I kind of think there is truth here. But if this is true, why do so few people take refuge in Yahweh? Can it be that all of those doubters; those deserters of… Read More ›

What does it mean to be blessed? Early on, the word was applied mostly to the Greek gods. Homer used it rarely about mankind, and then only when man had left this material world and had entered the spirit realm. After all, only the gods could attain true happiness; only their life could be said… Read More ›

There once was a man, or it could have been a woman, it really doesn’t matter to the story. Anyway, there was this person who was beset by difficulties. The world had become grey and depressingly hazy, like a lingering London fog. One day, after what seemed to be an eternity, the woman, or the… Read More ›

People who do genuinely good things, will always have their critics. And if it is genuinely good; if the poor are being fed; the uneducated are being educated; the oppressed are being unshackled, is there anything to be critical about? What if their motives are bad though? The hungry are eating and you want to… Read More ›

You have probably heard the proverbial statement, “God helps those who help themselves.” To be honest, I cringe when I hear people say this because I have a sneaky suspicion that they really mean that God doesn’t actually do anything. But it is true on some level. It is not true that God saves those… Read More ›