Category Archives: Journal

Sharing more about me, less about (almost) everything else

“No Such Thing as a Perfect Family”

One way or another, I’ve been part of a family all my life: as a child, as a husband and father, as a grandfather. The experience has never been perfect. But I think Pope Francis is right. We do, occasionally, … Continue reading

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My Oak Tree and Its Travels

A happy memory from our time on Buford Avenue in the early 1960s — I talked about that a couple weeks back1 — is planting an acorn from one of the oaks there. An Acorn and Memories Among the many … Continue reading

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Pope Francis: Somewhat-Good News

Pope Francis has been popping up in my news feed this week. More accurately, I’ve been seeing the headlines of news items and op-eds inspired by the pope’s current illness — and by culturally-normative assumptions about what popes are and … Continue reading

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Central Minnesota: Cold and Getting Colder

It’s a cold night, here in central Minnesota. We’re living with an “Extreme Cold Warning in effect from February 17, 09:00 PM CST until February 18, 10:00 AM CST” and “Extreme Cold Warning in effect from February 17, 09:00 PM … Continue reading

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Life Lessons: Grocery Bags and a Bottle of Ketchup

Saint Anthony Park public library looks about the way I remember it, back in the early 1960s: from this angle, at any rate. It was on the other side of a small ‘downtown’, between Carter and Doswell Avenues on Como. … Continue reading

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