On August 27, 2014, Andy Thomason, news reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education wrote: “You are getting older. You are older now than you were at the moment this page first loaded. And now you’re even older, and you can’t stem the tide of time.” What he wrote, of course, is correct. From the minute we are born, we continue every second of our lives to get older. Over time, this can become somewhat disconcerting. I suggest that there is, however, something we can do to make each stage of our lives more rewarding. 

As human beings, male and female, young and old, we never seem satisfied with where we are in life.  For example: Read more…

In the opening paragraph of his book Whatever Became of Sin?, Karl Menninger, one of the founders of the famed Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, tells a funny but very significant story. 

“On a sunny day in September, 1972, a stern-faced, plainly dressed man could be seen standing still on a street corner in the busy Chicago Loop.  As pedestrians hurried by on their way to lunch or business, he would solemnly lift his right arm, and pointing to the person nearest him, intone loudly the single word ‘GUILTY!’ 

“Then, without any change of expression, he would resume his still stance for a few moments before repeating the gesture.  Then, again, the inexorable raising of his arm, the pointing, and the solemn pronouncing of the one word ‘GUILTY!’ 

“The effect of this strange accusatory pantomime on the passing strangers was extraordinary, almost eerie.  They would stare at him, hesitate, look away, look at each other, and then at him again; then hurriedly continue on their ways. 

“One man, turning to another who was my informant, exclaimed: ‘But how did he know?’” Read more…

Staff members at a local Starbucks I frequent for hot chocolate learned that my wife and I recently celebrated our sixtieth wedding anniversary.  They are all relatively young, and sixty years seems like a long time to them.  So they asked me to write about some of the things a couple has to do in order to make it together for that long. 

In this day and age when so many married couples find they are not a match for each other and call it quits, it is not surprising that today’s younger adults find sixty years of marriage to be very unusual.  When my wife and I were married, celebrating a fiftieth anniversary was hailed as the “golden” anniversary that everyone was in awe of.  The fiftieth anniversary is still very special.  But today many marriages bypass the golden anniversary, as well as the sixtieth, and it is not unheard of for people to celebrate seventy-five years together, or even longer.  So there are many others who are more qualified than I to write about what it takes to make a marriage work.  But I will share my thoughts about making a marriage a lasting relationship. Read more…

Are people less friendly than they used to be?   

Being a clergyman, my family and I moved often.  I have never lived long enough in one town or city to compare the current attitudes of people with how individuals and families felt and acted in the past, say thirty-five or forty years ago.  It usually takes that long for basic living habits of populations to change to a noticeable degree.  I have had the “gut feeling,” though, that people today in small towns and large cities tend to be less friendly than people in past years.  I set out to find reliable information on this matter, and what I learned is very interesting.  Read more…