Wendell Berry died this past week. He was 92. Of the many descriptions- poet, novelist, farmer, Christian, and environmentalist- placed on Wendell Berry, the one I like best is The Agrarian Poet. I will be the first to admit that I’m no literary expert on the life and works of Wendell Berry. In fact, my… Continue reading A Words Look: THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS by Wendell Berry
Category: Writing
The Robot Occurence
by Mike Hays Unit XBR549 rolled from its maximum security cell, escorted by four government security thugs. Time was up. No stay of execution from the White House, so the execution order commenced. Treason was still a capital offense in 2115. And with all AI Level 3.6 operated robots and above added to the list… Continue reading The Robot Occurence
Blessed Are You If You Do It
So when he had washed their feetand put his garments back on and reclined at table again,he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you?You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am.If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,you ought to wash one… Continue reading Blessed Are You If You Do It
An Anchor in the Wind
In the face of brutal, early March in Kansas, 50 MPH+ wind gusts, I saw a starling land on a branch at the very top of an old oak tree. The north wind tossed the limbs and the entire top of the tree, violently side to side. The bird, a starling, deftly landed on the… Continue reading An Anchor in the Wind
Work Smarter, Not Colder
The plan today was to do the final fallen leaf mowing of 2025. The leaves turned and fell very late this fall, so this facet of lawn maintenance has run deep into November and December. (Note: The garden also had an extended growing season, i.e., I ate the final tomato of the season today on… Continue reading Work Smarter, Not Colder
Book Series Challenge: Pinocchio
In February of 2024, while scrolling through illustrators’ posts on Instagram, I ran across an announcement by Monty Lee for an upcoming illustration challenge called the Book Series Challenge. The challenge was to use any media of choice, excluding generative AI, and create illustrations for seven prompts taken from classic book excerpts. The Book Series… Continue reading Book Series Challenge: Pinocchio
Baseball Bats
Thirteen years old and I’m playing right field late in the game on a late weeknight game at Liondotte Field, Kansas City, Kansas. It’s hot. It’s mid-June humid, and there’s a haze in the air, which, for once, is not caused by the 1970s-era parents chain-smoking in the stands trying to stay awake. The coach… Continue reading Baseball Bats
A Words Look: Hope by Pope Francis, Part 2.
Build a better future by building a better now. My reading for Lent this year was Pope Francis’s autobiography, Hope. The Pope says in the introduction that this book was scheduled to be released after his death, but he felt the current state of worldly affairs warranted its release before his death and before he… Continue reading A Words Look: Hope by Pope Francis, Part 2.
A Word’s Look: Workingman’s Blues #2 by Bob Dylan
Of the entire canon of Bob Dylan’s work, I think Workingman’s Blues #2 runs a close second to Like a Rolling Stone. The song came out in 2006 on Dylan’s Modern Times album. I cannot remember where I first heard or became aware of it. It was probably on one of the last area real-life… Continue reading A Word’s Look: Workingman’s Blues #2 by Bob Dylan
A Words Look: General Eisenhower’s D-Day Letter to the Allied Expeditionary Force
DDay+80—eighty years since the Greatest Generation began the greatest offensive in all human history directed at the face of tyranny. With three writing projects in the orbit of three different eras of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s professional life, I’ve done quite a bit of reading and research on Ike Eisenhower. The most important thing I’ve discovered… Continue reading A Words Look: General Eisenhower’s D-Day Letter to the Allied Expeditionary Force