A Version of DEET-against-Humanity

The sun is setting behind a ridge across the lake when I notice a couple of things simultaneously. First, insects are not bothering me. I have watched and photographed the sunset for about 20 minutes and have not experienced a single buzz or bite—a stark contrast...

The Help We Really Need

“I could use some help,” I say to the nurse at a retreat center where kids from my church are in camp. “My thumb has been sore for a while and isn’t getting better.” A couple of months prior (when I was young and volleyball nets were much lower) I dislocated my thumb...

Seek Judgment in Yahweh’s Court Only

“Against you, you only, have I sinned…” (Psalm 51:4). The omission of that statement is as culpable as the person who expresses it “when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba” (Psalm 51: superscript). The acts amalgamated into this sin are...

God Counts Them

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it And spills the upper boulder in the sun, And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them and made repair Where they...

Da Da Da Dum.

Almost everyone is familiar with the opening phrase of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Da da da dum; da da da dum. The motif is now ubiquitous. Some riffs, rhythms, and even lyrics ensconce themselves in the mind so tenaciously it is hard to imagine a world without them:...