Our organist and choirmaster, Jean Touhy, got a rewarding job offer to work at a church in Chicago.  Since 2001, she worked with Merry and I as part of the “small group choir” we called The Schola Cantorum.  Our last singing mass was 10am on Sunday, and we had a last get-together party at Kurt’s [...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruyi It’s a simple object.  A backscratcher actually, with centuries of significance in Chinese culture.  So why did I think it was an ancient carpeting tool all these years until a push-hands partner from China showed me otherwise? Years ago, I had a close friend named David Moerler who was half-Chinese by birth, who told me [...]

I usually don’t talk about what goes on at the apartment complex here.  For those who don’t know, I manage (read “babysit”) things here and get a break on rent … a perfect arrangement as I work from a home office anyway.  It really means doing some shoveling, salting, or riding the lawn mower now and [...]

I grew up with a statue of the Infant of Prague on my nightstand, which when we moved to where we live now was placed on my daughter’s nightstand.  It was a little worn these last few years … a nick here, a chip there, and the loosely placed crown (on top the moulded crown [...]

I got a call today from an old friend, who asked me to talk to their daughter.  She wanted to know how to “find herself” and I was the person who came to mind to answer such a thing.  It caught me off guard at first, and I floundered around about superficial personality assessments and [...]

Reading all the confrontational (read “nasty”) posts on a news group I frequent, I became aware of a strange feeling when meditating upon the people there.  Some of these people could be described by bystanders as they describe each other: dysfunctional, hateful, mentally challenged, and the list goes on.  They can be mean, polite, vengeful, [...]

While snooping around the library (since the entire universe isn’t on the web just yet), I went to use the book search computer — the modern equivalent of the card catalog.  In the old days, there were tiny wooden boxes full of little pieces of scrap paper so you could write down Dewey Decimal numbers [...]

For the first time since Aunt Butch’s death, a good portion of the family got together, and at our place on top of it.  Unfortunately, it rained the useful portion of the day and so there was no outdoor cookout. Other than that, I’m still recovering from that cold or mild bronchitis or whatever it [...]