My parents’ apartment is a time capsule. After my dad’s death in August, my brothers and I started sorting and cleaning out their cherished possessions. When you go through someone’s bedside table, you get a good understanding of what they…
I saw the movie Barbie when my dad lay dying in hospice. I went because I had promised my daughter, nieces, and sisters-in-law I would join them. Sitting in The Bay Theater in Suttons Bay at a matinee show, I…
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, describes itself as a place of “Love. Churches display love of their neighbor, their enemy, their community and God’s people.” Except if you are a female. In…
The neat thing about movie rolls staring method actors is we know their motivations and reasons for their dramatic transformations to play a character. They are acting to extremes to portray or dramatize a role. A troubling trend today is…
April is bringing more mayhem. More vile, ugly gun violence and more deaths of American children. A sentence that is tough to write. We are enabling this freakishly gruesome yet uniquely American phenomenon. Nowhere else in the world does this…
Have you watched the body camera footage from the Metro Nashville Police Department showing raw video of this week’s school shooting in America? Bodycam footage from the Covenant School shooting is posted online where viewers can watch, firsthand, the events…
Recently, I was involved in, or rather witnessed, a conversation between my dad and one of our children that defines intergenerational differences. It started like this: We shared dinner and talked about experiences returning to work after COVID. This is…
China just rang in the Lunar New Year. As a nation, they are stuck in a dark loop of the coronavirus, with this looking more like the year of the groundhog rather than the year of the rabbit. China is…
I recently went on a long-awaited holiday. My husband of 30 years, Jay, and I had postponed our anniversary trip to Europe because of COVID. While in London, we attended an evening concert at an Episcopal Church. We arrived early,…
My mother, Nancy Giles, died suddenly in the summer of 2021. To those who knew her, Nan had many varied interests; however, the Leelanau Township Library was one place where she showed a particular devotion. Aside from being an enthusiastic…