It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m four hours away from having filled my space in the pew. My daughter, Abbie, just introduced me to Philip Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Experiment. Tomorrow night she’s going over to Linfield College to hear Zimbardo. Abbie’s brief description of the Stanford Prison Experiment and a ten minute YouTube video gave me a reality check on the nature of living on this side of Eden.

I didn’t know anything about John Ulwelling until yesterday. He died February 13 at age 66. I learned this when my daughter in Arizona phoned. One of the online tributes she had read about her friend was written by Greg Skipper of Montgomery, Alabama. She thought it sounded like Greg Skipper of Newberg, Oregon, from years ago (and it was). John Ulwelling had been president of the Foundation for Medical Excellence and prior to that he was executive director of the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners. My daughter had worked at a Portland law firm that shared some office space with John. This is where she discovered that John was a man of unusual quality with great personal sensitivity.

I didn’t know John, but I have two people in my human web who were also in his and what they have said about him waters fertile soil in my soul.

Reflecting back on a recent conversation, I’m thinking about words like persistent, perseverant, diligent, and resolute. My friend told me the exact number of times (thirty-nine) he talked to a landowner about buying a specific piece of land. All but the last time he was told no in very certain terms. Roger had a vision—a mission—and he didn’t give up. So I’m thinking about what I can learn from the way Roger has repeatedly used determination to make God-pleasing things happen.

I’ve been working on a presentation about changes in book publishing. Quakers Uniting in Publications will be meeting in Oregon the middle of April and they asked me to present a session titled “Beyond the Book.” In this business of connecting writers and readers, it’s not enough to see where we have been and where we are. But trying to see where we might be even in just five years is difficult. One of the certainties is that change will win out over tradition.

Trina would have turned 39 today. I sometimes wonder if it is hyperbole when someone says, “Not a day does by that I don’t think about….” I’ll admit I haven’t thought about Trina every day for the past 15 plus years, but I do hold her in a special place somewhere in my inner self. And I certainly think of her every March 28.

It’s Sunday morning and the faithful have gathered. Today we are talking about how the biblical text guides our lives. Given the current state of the global economy, I’m wondering if Bible believing Christians should put greed on the agenda up in those prime spots along with abortion and same-sex marriage.

It’s Sunday morning and the faithful have gathered. The scripture reading is Psalm 43. I’m wondering if the psalmist is on an emotional roller coaster. “Why did you walk out on me?” he asks God. Then three verses later he says God puts a smile on his face and “He’s my God.” Sometimes I try to hide my feelings by painting a layer of logic over my emotions. I want to look more rational than I am. Seems to me that the psalmist just put it out there the way it was in the moment.