Steve’s Musings



The cost of war

A week ago, I was sitting in the living room of a farm house in Crespano, Italy with some of my wife’s relatives. The TV was on and they were showing the bodies of the 17 Italian soldiers/police killed in Iraq being returned to Rome. It was a somber event. I felt the need to […]


Impressions of Italy

Italy, wow! What a trip. We spent ten days in the Venice area of Northern Italy. I’ll probably have a number of things to say about my impressions in the next days. For one thing, it is so nice to see old, old buildings still being used and renovated so that there are beautiful downtown […]


Traveling

Tomorrow, my wife and I are going to Italy. We will visit the area around Venice and Verona. We will meet some of her relatives on her mother’s side. We will relax and enjoy ourselves, eat good food, see beautiful sights. We will return November 21st, and I will resume blogging at that time if […]


Clean-up time

Started the fall ritual of putting away the deck furniture, cutting off dead plants and raking leaves today. Getting the yard ready for winter while the weather is still nice. It’s around 32 degrees out there, but the sun is shining and the crisp air feels good. I prefer working outside in cooler weather, and […]


Resist oppression!

Life is what we make of it. Unfortunately, some persons are making much more of it than others. An excellent article Bill Moyers Interviews Union Theological Seminary’s Joseph Hough makes good points about this. An interesting point that wasn’t really clear to me before reading this is that the Republicans are deliberately trying to bankrupt […]


What to call myself?

I had lunch today with a friend of mine who is a Reformed Church in America clergy. He told me if his denomination knew what he was saying he would have to face a heresy trial. I am glad I am ordained in the United Church of Christ where we are free to believe according […]


Father and son

This says it all… In his memoirs, “A World Transformed,” written more than five years ago, George Bush, Sr. wrote the following to explain why he didn’t go after Saddam Hussein at the end of the Gulf War. “Trying to eliminate Saddam…would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible…. We […]


Standing together

I applaud the Episcopal Church for consecrating Bishop Gene Robinson in the face of threats of schisms within and without. We do not live in the first century but rather the twenty-first century. We cannot allow first century social mores to guide us today as if they were some infallible dictate written in stone by […]


Be whole and holy

Today is Halloween, the day before All Saints Day. Actually, Halloween was originally known as All Hallows Eve. It’s similar to Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. It appears that before we can approach the holy, we need to give expression to the “unholy,” the dark or shadow […]


The move is underway

Today, I began the work of moving my office. After a year at Coopers Landing, I am moving to The Healing Gardens. Coopers Landing is a very nice, well equipped office building where I have an office with wood paneling, a receptionist, waiting room and other amenities. I have good relationships with the receptionists and […]