"Happy to come back to Michigan, but I miss the mountains!"
Another year is very nearly in the books, so to say, which means it's time to reflect on the assortment of tomes I've read over the past 52 weeks. I was pleased to ever-so-slightly surpass my Goodreads goal of reading 45 books in 2023. Looking back over the list, I couldn't settle on an individual favorite or rank the top 3 or 4. Instead, honors for 13 different books I most enjoyed are spelled out below (arranged in the order I read them): Here's to happy reading in 2024! … [Read more...]
When a new school year starts, many parents jump for joy over the fact that summer ends and their children go back to the classroom. But some other parents experience feelings of trepidation. For them, the school year can be a struggle because their kids have learning disabilities. In the United States there are over four million children who have one or more learning disorders, and almost three million of them take part in special education services at their school. These valuable services help kids who feel overwhelmed in a regular classroom by implementing specialized teaching methods that not only help them learn successfully but also boost their self-esteem. When children are young and just starting school, it’s not always easy … [Read more...]
Every year's version of the Christmas music countdown (featuring an ordered assortment of my favorite Holiday listening) gets that much better. The 2022 edition includes a wide variety of 200 sacred, secular and sentimental songs for your enjoyment, including several new selections and new covers of perennial favorites. You can access the main countdown on YouTube or a slightly different version on Spotify. Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Dose of Musical Enjoyment! … [Read more...]
Now that we've moved into 2021, most of us aren't interested in looking back on the year that was. But having completed my Goodreads goal of 40 books read in 2020, as of about 10:00 PM on New Year's Eve, I wanted to take a moment and highlight the best and most influential selections. In alphabetical order, by author: 1. American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump by Tim Alberta. Eye-opening and troubling, for those who want an insider's view of how the GOP went from Tea Party to Trump. 2. The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis by Leon Kass. I've read the first book of the Bible many times before, but left with new insights, especially on Adam and Eve, and brothers Judah and Joseph. 3. … [Read more...]
It's been a few years since I've posted the annual updated list of my favorite Christmas songs here on the blog. But given the bleakness of 2020, and the epic makeover to the list, the time has come once again. So without further ado, click on Bing's picture below to get access to all 180 songs: Agree or disagree (more likely) with my rankings, that's a lot of Christmas musical selections. Makes those Top 50 lists of yesteryear seem kind of quaint. … [Read more...]
Book review: David French, Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation (2020, St. Martin’s Press) Amid the increasingly vitriolic cacophony of our angry partisan bickering, David French stands out as a Tennessee-twanged voice in the wilderness. This book offers a less-than-rose-tinted take on America's political polarization. Without being overly alarmist, Divided We Fall offers a sobering analysis of our nation's looming future and a prescription for readers to help reverse the trend. French cut his teeth in the conservative movement and to this day remains a committed evangelical Christian who is devotedly pro-life and an expert defender of religious liberty. Even so, he treats the faults of America's … [Read more...]
I was 25 years old, engaged to be married. Fallen off the graduate degree track, I’d left academia behind with a master’s degree and, amazingly, no college debt. Only a few years earlier, I had been convinced to pursue a Ph.D. in history and become a professor. History, or at least certain fields within history, remain a passion to this day. During my senior year, one professor after another counseled me to find another use for my pending history degree. My strong academic inclinations and track record were not sufficient to justify the politics of higher education, the exceedingly tight job market or the long wait it would take to get there. If you can’t teach college students, I thought, why not try high school? My brief stint in … [Read more...]
I've emerged from my blogging solitude to publish an original poem: Maybe it's my version of a mid-life crisis. It's comprised of melancholy, resilient reflections on the sweep of life, metaphysical truths, and finding a place in history, from the perspective of my culture and generation. Many of the images and phrases flashed into my mind last fall during a brief quiet season in my life. I jotted a first draft. Then recently, more ideas and images came, until I decided to see it through to the finish. I don't necessarily expect anyone to enjoy or appreciate it, or make any pretense about all the underlying meanings, or to consider it much more than a carefully constructed third draft of my own focused ponderings. But if anyone else … [Read more...]
For the fifth time in six years, I've decided to post the list of my 50 favorite Christmas(/Advent) songs, first assembled in 2012. The list returned for 2013, 2014 and (after a cross-state moving hiatus) in 2016. Once again, as in the last couple editions, I have linked every entry to a free online version that best captures the respective song's quality (or just was available and sounded interesting). Most of the links are the same as before. Nonetheless, a few had to be replaced after coming off YouTube, or I just found a better or more interesting version. While three songs disappeared off the list for the first time ever (marked in Bold Italics in the list below the Top 50), this year two oldies made inaugural appearances on the Top … [Read more...]
In the spirit of my 50 favorite Christmas songs, I have decided to assemble a shorter list of 16 moving crucifixion songs to commemorate the Good Friday and Easter season. John 19:16b-19 So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Luke 23:44-47 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling … [Read more...]