What's Tony Thinking

A Walk in the ‘Hood

June 12, 2021 — On Thursday I led a walking tour of Ballard our Seattle neighborhood. It was the first of a “neighborhood walks” series, the latest idea of our great civic entrepreneur, David Brewster. David has been the founder of Seattle Weekly, Town Hall Seattle and Crosscut.com among other things. His current project is Post Alley. His idea... Read More

Follow Up on “Compassion Seattle”

June 12, 2021 — Earlier in the week I wrote about this proposed Seattle Charter Amendment, “Compassion Seattle.” That followed on a conversation with its principal architect, Tim Burgess. On Friday, Post Alley carried a slightly edited version of my piece. As Tim pointed out and as responses to my piece indicate, CS gets push-back from both the left... Read More

Will (Willimon) and Me

June 9, 2021 — As I mentioned in a previous post, I have discovered podcasts during the pandemic. In the early months, I did my listening while on walks and hikes. Since the gym has re-opened, I listen while plodding along on various exercise machines. Some of you tuned in to listen when I was the featured guest on... Read More

Compassion Seattle

June 8, 2021 — I had a chance to visit with Tim Burgess, former member of the City Council and, for a spell, interim Mayor, about the “Compassion Seattle” effort he is leading (as a volunteer by the way). “Compassion Seattle” is now in the process of gathering signatures to appear on the fall ballot as an amendment to... Read More

Can We Just Take a Moment?

June 6, 2021 — Can we take just a moment to say, “What a wonderful world!” It is the words of the Louis Armstrong song that have been on my mind, in my heart, as we open like blooming flowers into what, for growing numbers, is the post-pandemic world. Yes, I know, there’s still plenty to fret about, to... Read More

Improving Communication in Churches (and other human communities)

June 3, 2021 — (Note: this is something I wrote a while back for another project, which didn’t come to fruition at the time. But it may still be of some value. I hope so.) We are imperfect people. So, our communicating with one another in the church will often be flawed. Sin gets in the way. But we... Read More

The Obama Enigma, Hard History, Help Wanted

June 3, 2021 — We made the drive back from the Wallowas to Seattle on Tuesday, after the Memorial Day traffic had subsided. We will return there for the balance of the summer, but are back to the big city for a couple weeks to celebrate the birthdays of grandchildren and enjoy several in-person gathering with friends. On the... Read More

Wonder, Sanctified Selfishness and Bridges

May 31, 2021 — Our daughter Laura preached yesterday on “A Doctrine of Wonder.” Coincidentally, or as some of my friends like to say ‘god-incidentally,’ my friend Roy Howard included the following from Barbara Kingsolver in his “Monday Meditation.” Kingsolver: “I am a scientist who thinks it wise to enter the doors of creation not with a lion-tamer’s whip... Read More

Memorial Day, Fire and Bears

May 29, 2021 — It’s Memorial Day Weekend, the un-official beginning of summer. Where we are, in the Wallowa Mountains, Memorial Day is living up to that billing with clear, warm days — more so than usual for this time of year. But unalloyed blissful enjoyment of idyllic weather is, alas, a thing of our clueless, if cheerful, past.... Read More

Crime and Politics

May 27, 2021 — The crime rate is surging. It began to rise in 2020, and continues in 2021. Daily there are multiple reports on “Next Door: Ballard” (our Seattle neighborhood) of break-in’s, car thefts and (an especially popular one) stealing packages from Amazon/ UPS/ USPS off people’s porches. Sometimes the latter are accompanied by videos of the culprit.... Read More

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