As Worshipful Master of McKinley Lodge in Canton, OH, I have the opportunity to lay two wreaths at President McKinley's memorial this year. The first was last Saturday, January 28th, 2023 as part of the Presidential Library and Museum's annual birthday celebration. President McKinley was an active member of our…
Blogging is a habit I find hard to maintain. My best streak was during grad school when I had a lot to write and many new experiences to capture. I have a legal pad of about 26 topics ready for entries. Now is the time to start making them.…
I'm finally working my way through the volumes of old Short Talk Bulletins [https://shorttalkbulletin.com/] published by the Masonic Service Association of North America [https://msana.com/short-talk-bulletins/]. One of the earliest, from March 1923 presents some interesting lessons for today's masons navigating a politically tumultuous world. It's a…
The book I read in 2021 that is sticking with me the most is Rodney Clapp's Naming Neoliberalism: Exposing the Spirit of Our Age. Clapp reviews neoliberalism as it exists today before applying scripture and theological scholarship to explain a better way. A couple key highlights I noted: > "By contrast,…
The new year is a good opportunity to pause and reflect. Review last year, assess where you are, and plan where to go next. Part of that exercise this year for me reminded me that I don't blog nearly as much as I would like. Hope to make this a…
In honor of Labor Day 2021, I'll direct you to this article [https://www.dailyposter.com/the-labor-day-graph-that-says-it-all/] from the Daily Poster [https://www.dailyposter.com/]. Among other things, it discusses the relationship between income inequality and union membership. Worth the read to remember why the labor movement is valuable.…
We finally achieved a milestone in 2020. We had a house we owned turn from "Recently Sold" to "Off Market" on Zillow. Apparently, that takes three years. Even though I felt like we were finally settled down, we kept a passive eye on the market. About a month ago, six…
I started blogging in early 2005. I'm not even sure what platform I used back then. At some point, I transitioned that original blog to Wordpress. I shuttered that effort sometime in 2007 after starting a federal government position. I just found all those old blog posts in a SQL…