I’ll bring a side dish

We were all standing around after church a few months ago, sorting out who was going to bring the salad or the baked beans or the pickled woodchuck to the next week’s potluck, when I offered, “Hey, I’ll bring a side dish.” I had one arm wrapped around the...

Same girl, different couch

My wife had been in what experts refer to as a PVS (Persistent Vegetative State) for several months. By that I mean that each night when I came home from work I knew exactly where she would be in the house, in what position she would be in, and what her state of mind...

Holding on to what we know

Sometimes you just know. We humans think we’re rational and pragmatic; steady, reasoned thinkers building our lives on the bedrock of logic and truth. The world is concrete, knowable; we can write it’s substance down in books, post it’s realities on the...

Why the man wore socks to bed

The man drove home from his office, forlorn because he knew his house would be dark and cold and quiet and lonely. His family had scattered. His son had gone off to college, married, and moved to a town and hour away — which was all wonderful and proper, but which...

A world without double-negative nitrogen

I’ve been writing this little column for over five years now, and just when I think I’ve got nothing left to say, my wife opens her mouth. Like most women, she doesn’t do this intentionally, it just happens. And after three decades, she still cracks me up. I was...