On Sunday, she’ll drive to hear the new preacher and sing, like always, for both she and Uncle Joe. After church, she’ll turn on the football game because Joe loved his Cowboys, even through the bad years.

The caution is to the reader and listener, to take the content with a critical eye, looking past the well-spun and novel to the rich and true.  This is the work of the critical thinker and of the maturing Christian — study for yourself. 

The class created space for us to have a conversation about things we didn’t know we needed to have a conversation about.  That was the value, not the worksheets.

If Amy is the hero of her journey, my role (and thus how I introduce myself) should mirror hers and seek to narrow the focus of our search for ‘you too?’

Whatever the ‘real’ answer is, I wonder what it matters.  I had a dream that someone else realized.  

At the end of the call home and after the administrative translations, she reminds us both that she loves us and that she’ll send cookies.  

Life happened.  People made active decisions to tear down and build again.  Others decided to not take action.  Life happened to them.  The stuff accumulated because no one took out the trash.

The practice of respectful titles introduces an element of humility, noting that the speaker is giving the designee the seat of honor in an exchange.  It’s an important piece of intergenerational relations that we may be losing, I fear.  

Getting old means adapting, not giving in or giving up.  It means paying attention more closely (and choosing the side of the bed nearest the potty).