Category

Arcania

An odd category at first glance, this is the place where you can find odd facts, rocks you can turn over, minutia that’s important, wandering musings and rabbit trails to tempt you into different realms of thought. “Miscellany” might describe the category, and it might not….

A

Crossing over into daft?

Some of us oldsters use language patterns that can be strange. We sometimes communicate with a variety of verbal styles, including those that are arcane, lighthearted or metaphor-rich. The possible difficulty, though: Those ways of speaking and writing can also be perceived as signals that we’re having trouble finding our verbal marbles. That we’ve gone daft. Some listeners believe that onlyMORE...

Attractive communities

(Today’s entry is NOT about your nearby senior citizen lifestyle complex, or about Del Webb properties anywhere in the world. Instead, I’ve been thinking about how so many congregations are truly attractive.) Over the years I’ve noticed that some congregations don’t think of themselves as attractive anymore. That saddens me, because that kind of thinking can become as self-predictive as it may beMORE...

Taken for granted

  The usual/normal line of reasoning about “taking something/someone for granted”: “Don’t ignore your blessings because they’re familiar, close or constant.” This life-axiom makes sense, and its lesson is clear. Another possible meaning pops into focus, though: Perhaps I SHOULD take people (or things) for granted? Hear me out…. Grants are undeserved kindnesses or gifts. Given or receivedMORE...

Mess-makers and mess-sorters

I’m coming off a period of several weeks when digital spam-senders have been sorely afflicting me. This experience got me to thinking about two kinds of people—those who create messes and those who sort them out. In this case, the mess-creators flooded me with unrelenting torrents of unwanted information. Varieties of mess-makers invade other aspects of our lives—perhaps too many to waste ink onMORE...

Mapping the Milky Way with metaphors

(Every so often I read the writing of someone whose skills bring an idea or set of facts into focus with the kind of clarity that’s both rare and awe-inspiring. Today’s entry describes a recent example.) I have to tell you about a fascinating article I read in the February 2024 edition of Scientific American. It’s about the shifting character of the Milky Way. (See the link below.) The pieceMORE...

What to do with an extra day

(As a present from yesteryears’ calendar wizards, you and I will get an entire extra day in this month. Today’s entry explores some possibilities for using this gift.) February 29th is like a time-bank whose deposits we get to withdraw now—an entire day added to our lives! How might we think differently about Leap Day if we considered it as something like a bonus or added-value coupon good onlyMORE...

LIRS=Global Refuge?

In a recent mailing, the folks at Global Refuge—formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service—informed us about the new name they’ve decided on. What similar name changes have purported to offer is acceptance by a wider audience or donor/client base—something potentially more diverse than a presumably diminishing church-body tag. This continuing rebranding makes me sad: NOT thatMORE...

Hope from a box

Sometimes you can find hope in surprising places. That happened to me one recent morning when I looked at the box that my (Family Size) Cheerios™ came in. Here’s what I learned… The good folks at General Mills—a Minneapolis-based corporation—apparently decided to do something helpful and hopeful about the state of the country/world: They partnered with Disney and Fandango to spotlight Disney’sMORE...

An old man, a baby and a two-faced god

When it comes to popular media’s metaphors for the turning of a year, I am presented with two familiar choices: An old man and a baby greeting January 1st together, or the ancient Roman god Janus, looking both ways. Neither symbolic representation quite matches what tugs at my spirit. The old man—Father Time?—and the unnamed baby/infant raise a critical question: Who will pass on the wisdomMORE...

Greetings from the heavenly host

My preference for celebrating the Birth of Jesus is to seek quiet moments to contemplate the mystery of God’s redeeming love for me. To remember all the beautiful Christmas carols and hymns that echo that kind of feeling. Noise bothers me—life is filled with too much of it—so Christmas can offer a respite from that irksome aspect of life today. But then I remember how, in the middle of shepherds’MORE...

Bob Sitze

BOB SITZE has filled the many years of his lifework in diverse settings around the United States. His calling has included careers as a teacher/principal, church musician, writer/author, denominational executive staff member and meat worker. Bob lives in Wheaton, IL.

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