Elizabeth (Betty) Barnett was my wife, Lita’s, mother. She was born in 1910 and died December 20, 1985. She was a very remarkable woman in so many respects and a person for whom I had a great deal of love and admiration. She and her husband Hollis operated the Gateway Inn at the entrance to Mount Rainier for many years. This is a poem she wrote: "The snow floats gently on my roof tonight from mountain clouds of high; while…
In William Barclay’s book Day by Day, he talks about a time when he was considering retiring as pastor for a church. He writes that he was torn in mind as to whether to stay at his parish or leave to teach. He talked about his indecision to a member of his congregation he admired about it and the man said: "It’s a wise man that kens when tae lay doon the barra" which roughly translated means "It’s a wise…
Fr. Peter Phan is a prominent Vietnamese-American theologian. He is currently a professor at Georgetown University. In 2001 he was the president of the Catholic Theological Society of American. He has written over 300 essays and twenty books. He is the most respected Asian American theologian in the U.S. but his 2004 book, Being Religious Interreligiously, has caused a Vatican investigation of his writings. As explained in the September 28th issue of the National Catholic Reporter, Phan believes that while…
The Seattle Times (9/30) reports that U.S. Coach Greg Ryan dropped goal keeper Hope Solo, former Washington Husky standout from Richland, from the team for today’s Women World Cup third place match against Norway. On the previous Thursday, the coach had decided to have Briana Scurry play instead of Solor during the semi final match against Brazil. After Brazil defeated the U.S. team 4-0 & Scurry failed to block key goals Solor was quoted as saying about the coach playing…
As you saw the news about the Buddhist monks protesting and being killed by government forces in Myanmar did you wonder where the country is located and what it was all about? Well, I’m willing to admit I sure did. I admit I really wasn’t aware of a country called Myanmar and had little idea why religious monks should be shot to death for peaceful protest so I took the time to check it out and thought I’d share it…
Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light is a recent book about the late Mother Teresa of India. The media has been discussing the disclosure that in her private writings she describes her religious experience as "dry" "empty" "dark" and "devoid of all feeling." It appears that the founder of the Missionaries of Charity struggled for almost half a century with a desolate prayer life, but continued to serve God anyway. She experienced problems accepting God’s existence and presence in her…
Another passage I enjoyed reading in Mark Frost’s The greatest game ever played was about the great Walter Hagen. A golfer from Rochester, NY, Hagen was one of the golf greats. He collected eleven professional major titles, a record that stood until Jack Nicklaus and then Tiger Woods. In 1920 Hagen was playing in England when he ran into the country’s long held prohibition of allowing professional golfer’s in private clubhouses. When Walter went in one to change his shoes…
Have you been watching Ken Burns documentary War on public television? He’s done a great job of making the program interesting as well as informative and it’s a pleasure not to have to endure commercials. How horrible war really is and how real World War II was to me even though I was child. We lived through World War II. I remember the Sunday when Pearl Harbor was bombed and what I was doing. I was six years old and…
Paul Terhorst has written an interesting article in International Living magazine in which he discusses what people have done with their riches. He discusses Henry Ford, who at forty years of age, located eleven investors to bankroll the Ford Motor Company with an original total $28,000 investment. One of them, a lawyer named John Wendell Anderson, wrote his physician father asking to borrow $5000 to invest in the company. Having secured the loan from his reluctant father he invested in…
Arianna Huffington has written in her blog about Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine: The rise of Disaster Capitalism, compares it to Alan Greenspan’s book, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World. Huffington joins the many other critics of Greenspan’s spin of history in order to cover his compliancy in the disastrous Bush economic policies. She refers to his book tour as the "Greenspan embarrassment tour" and goes on to say: "Greenspan’s book is another in the…
