I was at the gym early one morning, before heading to teach classes at the evangelical university where I was a tenured professor. There were some young guys grouped around the weight machines fretting aloud about meeting their “witnessing quotas” for the week. Apparently they attended some local bible school or seminary that was even … Continue reading THE WEIGHT
One of the ways I sort out who to vote for, after I've considered the policy issues and whether or not the candidate has raped or attempted to rape anyone, is I consider if I would leave my daughters in their care (if my children were still small and in need of care). Last week … Continue reading THE DAUGHTER TEST
I’ll be honest, sometimes I get into arguments with progressive friends about what the current political movement requires. There are well-meaning folks passionate about social justice who think things have gotten so bad, the lines have been so starkly drawn, that we have to fight fire with fire. We have to do the same things to … Continue reading THE WIND BENEATH OUR STRINGS
We met Nikki Patin around this time last year on Chicago's South Side. My friend Jin J. X had introduced us online. It was a lunch meeting at the Currency Exchange Cafe, which sits on Garfield Boulevard, next door to the Arts Incubator Gallery. Nikki works at the gallery as Community Arts Engagement Manager for the … Continue reading POETRY IN MOTION
I wasn’t going to post this. Then I read this great article in the New Yorker where Katy Waldman talks about Robin DiAngelo’s new book, White Fragility. We have a propensity to capitulate or avoid talking about race because the social cost is too high…“as if the mention of racism were more offensive than the … Continue reading WHAT ARE WE AFRAID OF?
I have a confession: I eat at Chick-fil-A. When you live on the road, you prepare your own meals, or someone else prepares them for you. When the refrigerator in your van is broken, or you’re just too tired from traveling to think about cooking, you stop and find what you can. Seeking out exclusively … Continue reading CHICK-FIL-A, THE SKY IS FALLING, AND YOU
Years since we started this adventure: 1 Miles we’ve traveled in the van: 25,659 Miles we traveled in an AWD car (to do a couple of quick interviews in mountain states in the middle of winter): 2,419 Average miles per gallon in the van: 15.9 Hours spent in the van with the engine running: 649 … Continue reading GIGANTIC INDEX – DAY 365
Sixty-two years ago yesterday, ten-year-old Johnny Wilkinson rode his bike from 951 S. Weller Avenue, in Springfield, Missouri’s Rountree Neighborhood, to the Shrine Mosque auditorium downtown, where Elvis Presley was set to perform that night. Elvis was only 21 and had just started to top the charts and make television appearances, but his popularity hadn’t … Continue reading GRACE LAND
One criticism we’ve heard over this last year is we aren’t talking to a wide enough variety of people. A typical comment is, “You should talk to my aunt. She watches InfoWars everyday and thinks the Parkland shooting survivors are all paid actors in their twenties who never attended that high school.” I will talk … Continue reading I DON’T WANT TO TALK TO EVERYONE
Here's my latest song. I wrote it a couple of years ago for Springfield's "Wild Bob's Musical Book Club," which meets every month at Lindberg's Bar. The book was Ozark native Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone. Further inspiration came from Melissa Millsap's stories from Urban Roots Farm in downtown Springfield. I recorded the one-take video at the … Continue reading HERE WE GO AGAIN
