2021 marks the 400th anniversary of a special American tradition. Four centuries ago, during the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims sat down with their new Native American friends and celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts.  What a great tradition – where we gather together to recount the Lord’s blessings. I love the statement from columnist Mark Steyn: “Speaking as a misfit unassimilated foreigner, I think of Thanksgiving as the most American of holidays.” Consider its history as a holiday.    Pilgrims The Pilgrims were one particular congregation that was born in the Midlands of England, in the sleepy village […]

I am not a Facebook aficionado. Being both old and old fashioned, my preferred human interaction involves being able to smell the other person’s breath. I would much rather be “in your face” than on your Facebook. So it was somewhat out of character to open a message from Mike Garland, a former co-worker, to find a photograph of a sunrise taken from his ocean home in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. For some strange reason, my immediate reaction involved not so much the beauty of the shot, but rather the thought that since sunsets and sunrises look identical to the […]