Mowing the Lawn

I feel uneasy tonight. I'm not sure if I helped or was had. In what has become something of a Thursday-evening-post-basketball tradition, I drove to Walmart for some late night shopping. Two weeks ago it was new shorts and an exercise shirt. Last week it was another exercise shirt (because I liked the first one so much). This week it was new insoles and laces for my basketball shoes. (Thelma, who has thoroughly documented her distaste for shopping at Walmart has driven me to these shopping trips under the cover of night.) Approachable is not how I would have described myself as I trudged across the Walmart parking lot in my wife-beater sleeveless shirt, shorts and coordinating fleece vest. Sweaty, yes. Beleagured, perhaps. Approachable, no. But a woman did approach. Something told me to stop and wait for her. She was caught somewhere between out-of-breath and verge-of-tears. I could see she was nervous talking to me. She tripped quickly over some desperate story that I co

The latest hidden camera exposé by a conservative crusader finds a senior NPR fundraiser saying NPR would be better off without Federal funding while disparaging Republicans and the Tea Party movement.  Combined with NPR's  firing of Juan Williams for honest but impolitic comments made on Fox News, the recent events have become the perfect fodder for the vocal chorus of NPR haters who want to see Congress cut off funding for NPR by eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The argument is simple.  NPR is a biased, left-wing media outlet subsidized by taxpayer money it doesn't deserve. The argument is also wrong. Does NPR have a liberal bias?  Speaking as someone with a conservative bias, I think they do.  So do some people working at NPR, though they might prefer the term "sensibility" instead.  But so what?  Everyone has a bias toward issues they feel are important and the things they care about.  And organizations tend to grow by cons

What would you change if you could amend the constitution?  Would you circumscribe or maybe expand the government's role in controversial topics of the day like health care or deficit spending or owning private industry? Would you add something entirely new? (Consider President Bush and his support for a constitutional defintion of marriage.)  Would you leave the document alone and allow legislatures and courts to interpret it in light of current values and interets? (Consider President Obama's changing position on gay marriage.) Would you clarify passages and remove room for interpretation? One hundred fifty years ago, seven southern states had this chance for change when they declared their independence from the United States of America and set about adopting a new Confederate Constitution .  Given the opportunity to start from scratch, the Confederate framers chose instead to improve upon the United States Constitution.  And why not?  Part of the justification for seccess

I arrived home from work with just enough daylight and just enough Spring to mow the lawn.  Braeden and I reveled in the straight lines and greening blades.  "It's the awakening," he said. — I sat in the temple and smiled at the sight of Emma and Braeden sitting side by side, quiet and content.  Outside the temple, we stared up at the stained glass, the angel, the glowing walls.  I asked Emma how she felt.  "Light and airy," she replied. — Driving home from the airport, I listened to my mother describe her trip to Disneyland with Megan, Talia and Jackson.  "If your dad were still alive..." she began to say.  For the first time, I smiled and laughed instead of fighting back tears. — Awake. Light. Laugh. Alive. Again. — Everyone is asleep.  I sit down to write.  I don't cry.  I don't turn away.  It's a change.  I can write again, at last.  But it's not the same as Before.  Everything seems different now that I live