Getting off track
At dusk in early January, 2009 I stood in a blizzard at the base of a monument. As the snow swirled and fell in the wind, I looked up at a large statue raised to members of the Donner Party,…
Chebon in Paradisum
A week ago Friday we buried my pal Chebon Thomas. He is a good Christian man; a fine father and husband. A pipeline welder by trade and a violinist by avocation. A Native American who drove a red pickup and…
God is Love? That’s an emotion.
Someone wrote to me this reasonable question: If God has no emotions, then, how can God be Love or God is Love? My answer was that the imprecision of the English language causes this confusion: First, to distinguish between Emotions…
Letting Go
How can we get to Heaven if we cling to the Earth? Letting go of the rotten things is easy, we do it every time every time we take out the trash. Letting go of what we care about is…
Does a bear limp in the woods?
“Consolation”, that’s what Catholics call it when God gives you a small, unexpected gift that renews your faith. I’ve heard Protestants call the same phenomenon “Tender Mercies”. The wife and I received a Consolation the other day, in the most…
Peter, do you love me?
Peel away the top layer of any communication you experience, such as: Someone talking to you A book A movie The ocean and you’ll find layers of meaning, more complicated and more significant than the message perceived on the surface.…
Passive Voice
My dad wrote to me recently, referencing this article which had turned on a light over his head on how he was raised to be non-confrontational. Generations of Dutch/German farmers survived because their personalities were tuned to be cooperative, slow…
Life is a River
Are you the captain of your fate, or a leaf blowing in the wind? How hard should you “try”? Is your fate determined upfront? Or is life exactly what you make of it? My answers to those questions changed through…
Almost killed somebody
Ever dodged a bullet? Winston Churchill said words to the effect: “There is nothing so exhilarating as to be fired at without effect” and I understand that, after the events of January 1, 2007. The day started out peacefully. It…
Lightning strikes twice
A day came this summer that I knew would someday arrive, the death of my 16-year-old Chocolate Labrador. It was tough on the family, but we stuck together, learned from it, and gained some wisdom. Having two remaining dogs to…
What an Old Dog taught me
This story is a sad but hopeful one. My old dog died on June 24th, 2006 at 4:00AM and was buried in Las Vegas the following Tuesday. She had been a part of our family since we rescued her in…
On Carl Reiner and Purgatory
After Mass last Sunday, some friends came up to me and asked what the scriptural references were to the doctrine of Purgatory. I responded with 2 Maccabees 12:45 and Matthew 5:26, but was cut off by another parishioner/friend before I…
Pupose of Walt’s new blog
I’ve given some thought to a reason for this blog to exist. For the blog to be useful and purposeful, it must have focused goals. Discarded reasons are: Act as a journal of my daily life. I may have had…
WordPress and mod_security
When installing WordPress, I came up against a technical problem; http 500 errors generated by mod_security. A binary search of the httpd.conf file (alternately enabling and disabling groups of parms) revealed that this line caused the 500 error: SecFilterScanPOST On…
A new blog is born
It’s the third of July, 2006, there are ribs on the BBQ, the warm sun shines through the Firs and Aspens outside, and this is the first post on Walt’s blog. The dogs are sleeping on the floor and stretch…