Save me, O God,for the waters have come up to my neck.Psalm 69:1 The truth about treading water is that it does beat drowning. The rest of the truth is that you can't do it half-way; staying afloat only happens when you bring all your energies to bear on the effort.People don't enter deep water intending to stay in one place indefinitely. But when they find themselves up to…
It must be admitted up front that Jack and I liked receiving birthday cards as much for the checks taped inside as for the content of the cards. I'm just being honest. We saw the signatures, thought of the hands that wrote them and the people who loved us. And then we made a point to go to the bank and cash them in. Those checks weren't the actual…
I heard a true story about a friend who was vacationing with her family by a lake. One day she fell asleep on her raft. Through the course of the afternoon she drifted out quite a distance until someone noticed her predicament and sent a boat out to bring her back.The storyteller then asked, "What did she have to do in order to drift?" And…
I first noticed Jack diving backwards into the pool at Covenant College. It was 1973 and we were both starting school as freshmen. He was wearing a floppy hat and one wild-looking pair of jams. I didn't know it was Jack at the time, actually. I was unpacking and happened to look out the window at this guy who was clearly part duck. He knew…
A friend told me of the day her daddy died. She was 4 years old at the time, eating her chicken noodle soup, when she heard the devastating news. She sat over her bowl, tears sliding down her face, landing in her noodles. "Don't cry", she was told. "Don't cry." That lunch happened almost seven decades ago, but her memory is as vivid as ever. Her mom didn't…
I imagine all of us, at one time or another, have squinted into kaleidoscopes. They rank right up there with Slinkys and Silly Putty, am I right? Ahh, someone hand me a newspaper, let me recreate a childhood memory. Back to kaleidoscopes. Simple to operate: we hold the tube in one hand, put our eye to the viewfinder, and twist it with our other hand. First…
I'm starting this note at 3:30 - the time in my day when Jack typically called to say he was on his way home. We'd talk about what he'd built that day, the wood he'd used, how easy or hard it was to work with, how much glue he'd gotten on himself in the process. He'd describe the various procedures he'd followed in constructing a stringer, a horse, or…
Rollercoasters. I think you either love them or you don't. Jack was one who did. Favorites included the ride that twirls like a corkscrew, the one that goes straight up and straight down, and even the one suspended over water that swings back and forth two or three times until it flips over entirely, slows a bit and starts again. And though I have never liked rollercoasters, nor…
My brother and I spent time talking finances with a guy at the bank. Turns out when he's not talking stocks and bonds, he runs, and in fact had recently completed a triathlon. He swam for a couple miles, biked for a bunch more, and, when he "was really warmed up," ran for 26 more! How did he keep going, we asked him. "Well, around…