Mystical Murmurs: My Interfaith Life

I just got this joke on email, and I can't resist posting it (pun intended). This will leave you no doubt where I stand, assuming you had any. While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old rancher, whose hand was caught in the gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be our next Vice President. The old rancher said, "Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle." Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was. The old rancher said, "When you're driving down a country road you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle". The old rancher saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain. "You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, and she doesn't know what to do while she's up there, and you just wonder what k

I knew I couldn't stop blogging for long. Just call me Ladel Torque Palin. At least, that's what the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generato r suggested. Now you give it a go! Sqeegee Jester Palin? Thor Surprise Palin? Oh, no, I'm going to need a 12-step program for this also!

Yes, it's true. I have been neglecting my three faithful readers while remaining glued to CNN. I repent! But with the debates beginning next week ... I may need a CNN 12-step program!!! Or new eyeglasses, at the very least. Bear with me!

Just kidding! He doesn't really know me, of course. But I was 19 years old and working as a student Radiologic Technologist at the Delaware Hospital (another career, another lifetime ago), on December 18, 1972, when the word got around that newly-elected Senator Biden's family had been involved in a devastating car crash outside Wilmington. You could have heard a pin drop. I recall the day had been slow otherwise; we waited for more news. Biden's sons, Beau and Hunter, arrived for x-rays; I wasn't on the case, but lingered with my colleagues in the hallway. I don't remember hearing anything about the boys' condition (they survived and are fine!). But I do remember, as if it were yesterday, when the news arrived that Neilia Biden and the Bidens' toddler daughter, Amy, had been killed instantly in the crash. Delaware mourned -- truly. I moved away in 1977, but the memory lingers. We all felt terrible for the Biden family. Well, time passes, and I moved to

This weekend someone at church happened to mention he'd heard that crickets and spiders usually first appear at the same time during the summer. I'd never heard this; it sounded like a old wives' tale to me. Last night, sitting on my porch, listening to a medley of cricket-songs, I recalled what he had said. And, yes, at the far end of the porch, there she was: the orb-weaver, or her descendant, swinging gently in the light breeze, backlit by my neighbor's garage light. Well! this is a nasty development! The hair on my arms stood straight up. Her body is at least an inch across. Her legs are red-striped. YUCK. I know, I know -- she's part of God's creation. But so is toothache, and I don't have to like that , either! She'll be fine as long as she stays at the other end of the porch. I'll try to appreciate her. I'll try to list 5 reasons for liking her .... You go first.