Last week one of my classmates from a creative writing course at UMKC asked the question: what is the weirdest story you have ever heard or read. Here is my answer (and a true story): I worked as a salesman at Montgomery Ward’s in the early 2000s. I had a coworker there named Bob. Bob [...]
Jessie Schasteen didn’t have to do what she did. She didn’t do it because she was told to do it. She didn’t do it because her coach made her or because anyone pressured her or talked her into it. She did it because it was the right thing to do. She did it because the [...]
By Jeremy Gulley In his book Stuff of Thought, Stephen Pinker argues that the events of 9-11 are difficult to categorize. He explores the difference between seeing the attacks as one attack, with the events lumped together, or whether to separate them into four separate attacks. As I read Pinker’s argument, I started thinking . [...]
Every parent dreads the school phone call. Rarely is a call from school a good thing — usually it involves sickness, injury or some other form of trouble. As the school year starts, however, I’m reminded of two school phone calls that I delight in recalling. One day, when my oldest son was in kindergarten, [...]
For his 10th birthday, the only thing my son wanted was to go ride horses. His birthday was on Aug. 2, and we scheduled a ride with a local stable in Hillsdale. Unfortunately, it was way too hot to get the horses out that day, so we rescheduled for a week later. On Tuesday, Aug. [...]
If you are like me, you complicate everything more than necessary. I can take the simplest idea and beat it and mess with it over and over until it is so complicated I don’t recognize it any more. Why can’t I find a simple solution to problems and then be happy? I’m not sure what [...]
This summer, my entire way of looking at the world is shifting. I’m studying Spanish. The course I’m taking through Johnson County Community College is intense and leaves little room for thinking about anything else, whether in Spanish or English. The issue is, because I studied German when I was in college, my brain is [...]
It isn’t difficult to find negative stories in sports these days. It has become harder and harder to find a reason to watch professional sports without feeling guilty for supporting over-paid, pampered rich guys acting like spoiled rotten teenagers. Owners and managers aren’t much better – the current NFL labor strike is a perfect example, [...]
Once upon a time there was a woman named Mrs. Nelson. Mrs. Nelson and her family had recently moved to a new community and began attending a small church. When the church decided to have a bake sale for a fundraiser, Mrs. Nelson eagerly signed up, hoping to make a name for herself in the [...]
Daisy, my Great Dane, can make a real mess of a garden in not very much time. My boys and I spent a weekend tilling and planting the garden, and Daisy took about 15 minutes to dig a large hole in the middle of it. So we replanted, she dug again, and I got angry. [...]