Tying your shoes

On July 24, 1982, I watched Frank Shorter tie his running shoes. That’s it. At about 7:30 on that warm, clear Saturday morning, I was preparing to run in the Bix 7, an annual 7-mile race in Davenport, Iowa, part of the Bix Jazz Festival. It was during my pre-race stretching and nervous walking around […]

Landmarks in the middle of nowhere

During spring break a few years back, my family and I spent a few days over at Turkey Run State Park in Indiana.  One afternoon, we decided to drive around that area just to look at the countryside, see a few covered bridges and whatever else we might discover.  Judy commented that she had read […]

Landmarks in the middle of nowhere: Small decisions

A few years back, during a visit to Austin, Texas, I spied a historical marker on the side of downtown building.  I walked over to it and read these words:  “On this site in 1897 nothing happened.”  I smiled and went on my way, but it caused me to think.  I suspect that indeed something […]

Building altars for each other

I went to a reunion of a group of 30-somethings who had been the teenagers in the church where I had been the youth minister.  It was exhilarating and humbling to see these people after almost 20 years.  We had grown up together.  Though I was supposedly their “leader”, I was only a few years […]