Open Letter to Children’s National Medical Center

To Children’s National Medical Center: Below is a physician’s review I posted to Angie’s List. Since your survey was eliciting feedback, I thought you should know. Dr. Yewande Johnson met with our family shortly before my son was scheduled to go into the OR for his first of two surgeries in one week. She took […]

Hilarious

When my son is in the hospital, my wife and I take shifts staying overnight with him. That way there is always one coherent parent present when Drs and nurses come by. In this last 6 day stint, Monday was one of my nights off. When I got home I was so keyed up, I […]

Kinda Prayin’

I must preface my remarks today with an observation. Love has become an almost meaningless word to me. It is so ubiquitous in our lexicon that it can refer to hamburgers, sex or a lifelong commitment. So I am going to stop using it. For today’s entry the word I will use to convey my […]

Lament of a Tired Soul

I have a favorite poem. It is the “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot. It is a poem of a tired soul. The first stanza in particular resonates with me today. Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized […]

Taming the Smoke Monster

Zen and Ben, they rhyme, that is about the only thing those two words have in common. Not exactly true, but finding inner peace is not one of my strong suits. I have moments, fleeting moments of insight. I cannot imagine what true enlightenment would look like, but I can achieve several minutes of peacefulness […]

The Swinger

When my son was first born, I was on the cusp of going into the ministry. Because I was quasi clergy, I felt that I had to put a positive spin on everything. I said obnoxious things like, “thank God this happened to us. We have the resources and a strong relationship. We can deal […]

I’d rather laugh with the sinners, than cry with the saints

The older I get the more I think that I may not be compatible with heaven. It is most assuredly not for a lack of information. I have heard about heaven and hell for all of my life. I have spend most of my life surrounded by people that knew beyond a shadow of a […]

A Generous Idolatry

I have been thinking about Idols a lot recently (not the Paula Abdul kind). The second commandment says you shall not make carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven or above. If you go with the narrowest interpretation of the commandment, it would be pretty easy to keep. I do not […]

Veal or Chicken?

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” –Proverbs 22:6 When I was a kid, much of my free time was devoted to church and church activities. If there was an event that included my age group, I had to attend or […]

Sorry…Stolen from a friends blog

A friend of mine (Brian , who will remain safely anonymous…ooops) wrote recently about an apology he heard at work. I am shamelessly stealing this theme. To paraphrase, one of the things he said was that good apologies feel like you are ripping something out of your chest. Agreed! A former friend of mine was […]