Sometimes I do things for no apparent reason. One purpose-free activity that I occasionally revisit: Reading product labels. Sometimes there’s fascinating information hiding in the small print. For example, today I’d like to tell you about one of my favorites, the label on a tube of Gillette® PRO Shave Cream. This is a good shaving cream for anyone who appreciates a product that doesn’tMORE...
Looking at recent e-mails, I’ve noticed a higher number of junk messages and spam—all of them essentially e-garbage. Because I would have to open questionable links in order to unsubscribe, I feel stuck in e-Purgatory, writhing inside the grips of people who want to foul this e-nest. This bird-brained matter seems to characterize most other e-tools. E-mail’s original intent was quicklyMORE...
Chris recently found a little pocket journal I kept when I was in 7th grade. Holding some of my early-teen immaturities, this small diary also reminded me about the ways in which someone gave me a start. Offered me an opportunity. Invested in me. Showed light on the future. That year I played left defensive end on our parish school’s touch football team, started pipe organ lessons, enteredMORE...
This Federal holiday has emerged as another opportunity to honor some matters about our nation that warrant our remembering. Since any holiday can get co-opted to become another chance to sell something—e.g., traditional Memorial Day mattress sales—I’d like to pre-empt that possibility by offering my personal observations about this special day. What’s there to remember? Obviously, the truth thatMORE...
Just a few days ago, I wrote what I thought would be a convincing entry about the inability of AI to possess or use a sense of humor. Although some comedians and humorists seemed to doubt the present capacity of this technology to achieve that pinnacle of human sentience, a greater preponderance of social thinkers now seem resigned to the opposite: That AI will develop a sense of humor that goesMORE...
In the past few days, I’ve been feeling more than a little relieved. It seems that, per Amos 5:24, justice is once again rolling like an unstoppable river. That the laws of this land are being upheld and miscreants brought to trial. That rickety empires of lying, hate and disregard are collapsing. I think it’s okay to be gratified when evil gets cut down and withers. When generalized shame erodesMORE...
A few weeks ago, it struck me as linguistically correct that the people—mostly women—who take care of the many tasks associated with worship logistics are in many congregations called the Altar Guild. Some of the characteristics of Medieval guilds might also fit the skilled, knowledgeable people who make sure that all worship-related matters are done well. As I think more about it nowMORE...
Recently, the State Farm Insurance Company announced its decision to stop writing new protection policies for owners of businesses and homes in California. That got me to playing with the metaphor of “the canary in the coal mine,” an allusion to their warning coal miners about the presence of deadly gases. Because State Farm is a venerable enterprise—over 101 years old—that thought led to theseMORE...
The celebration of Pentecost may have come and gone, but its meaning and influence remain. This song comes from that Sunday’s worship at Faith Lutheran Church in Glen Ellyn, IL, whose spoken, written, musical and visual Pentecost languages revolved around the following evocative possibility. What do we usually sing about at Pentecost? How the Holy Spirit worked mightily on the hearts ofMORE...
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.