(John Andrews in the Denver Post, Dec. 4) It’s dusk on a December afternoon. You’re lost in a wintry woodland, cold and scared. It’s snowing hard and getting darker. Suddenly, through the trees, you see the astonishing glow of a lamppost. You’re not out of the woods yet, but now there’s hope. You can start to get your bearings. Better yet, someone put the lamppost there, someone lighted it. Be they friend or foe, the deathly solitude is broken. Cautiously you move toward the clearing.
Reflections of a rural refugee
By Brian Ochsner baochsner@aol.com I just got back into town Tuesday night, after spending an additional two days in the western Kansas community where I grew up, due to the blizzard. It was pretty good – two more days of home-cooked food, catching up on rest, and additional exercise on spur-of-the-moment cattle drives. It was also a good opportunity to clear my head and reflect on the differences between rural and big city living.
One day's news runs the gamut
By Krista Kafer krista555@msn.com From the Good... If you’re starved for happy news check out this article in the Rocky Mountain News about Ricardo Caldera, honored Monday for heroism at his elementary school. The nine-year-old shielded his younger brother from armed robbers who attacked his family’s Montbello home. The robbers fired into the basement window as they fled, hitting little Ricardo in the back.
Frosty must make room
By Krista Kafer krista555@msn.com If you’re hitting the malls on Friday for the big post-Thanksgiving Day shopping spree, you may get a “Merry Christmas” with your purchase, but then again you may not. Some stores, it seems, insist their employees use the colorless phrase “Happy Holidays” instead.
And at school, if you’re looking forward to hearing those sweet young voices sing age-old songs at your child’s annual pageant, you may not hear the word Christmas at all. You’ll wait patiently through a string of vapid mid-19th Century jingles and a few songs about Kwanzaa and Hanukkah, and then you’ll head home mystified and a little hollow. What holiday is this?
Giving thanks this week
(John Andrews reflects) America's Thanksgiving Day is about faith, family, and freedom. That's been our tradition for almost four centuries now. Feasting, football, and a four-day weekend are traditional too, but if that's all there is to the occasion, we risk the sin of ingratitude -- dishonoring our Creator and endangering ourselves.