Let’s say I’m standing in waist-deep water off Chicago’s Foster Beach with a box of strike anywhere matches in my hand. If I light a match and dip it into the water, what will happen? Yes, it will go out. And if I did the same with a second match, it would also go out. Even […]
Tag: following jesus
Patrick O’Brian on the storms of life
The tempests of life don’t always surprise us. Some we’ve faced before, and we often see them coming. When that’s the case, it helps to remember the experience. There’s an episode in Patrick O’Brian’s The Wine-Dark Sea that features four common stages of a storm. Though no two trials are identical, these stages rang true for me. […]
“Greatness Rather Than Promise”
“His third symphony revealed greatness rather than promise.” This was how the concert program introduced Carl August Nielsen, the Danish composer whose symphony we were enjoying. Rigorous aspirations are crucial to growth, but they also take time and repetition to master. It’s why cellists practice, pilots up their skills on simulators, writers rewrite, doctors pursue […]
Love & Hurricanes
Hurricanes arrive long before their arrival. The National Hurricane Center keeps vigil, tracking all threats before they get close. So do the news and weather channels, social media platforms, and every state and county in the path of the storm. This is called love. It’s those who know caring for the rest of us who […]
Tongue tamer.
My friends and I used to crouch beside my dad’s giant Wharfedale speakers, ears poised to catch every nuance of the music. Compared to our transistor radios, those speakers were like being on stage. That’s why I remember hearing Johnny Cash perform San Quentin live, right there at the prison. The song was a diatribe, and the […]
paulsanthouse.com 