What's Tony Thinking

Weather Report: March 28

March 28, 2020 — I’ve been walking the Loop Trail at Seattle’s Discovery Park, as have many others. The trail is wide enough in most places to give one another the required berth. But yesterday there was a sign on the parking lot at the park saying it was closed. The park is still open, just not the parking.... Read More

Anxiety

March 27, 2020 — (To repeat an earlier prefatory note: I am posting more often during this crisis. I hope it is helpful to you. I don’t know how long I’ll continue at this level or pace. If for you I am over-posting, I trust you will apply the delete button :).) As noted in yesterday’s post, this is... Read More

The Learning Curve

March 26, 2020 — This is beginning to get hard — and I’m one of the lucky ones. The philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead, compared learning to a three-step dance. First step, “romance.” You fall in love with something, or at least develop an infatuation. “Wow, that’s cool!” “I love that, I want to do that . . . I... Read More

Party On!

March 25, 2020 — I wish I thought there were a big distance between spring break beach-goer’s who don’t want the party to stop and President Trump who insists that the nation be “open for business” by Easter. Sure, you can make an argument that a recession/ depression will be costly to human life and health too. We know... Read More

Signs

March 24, 2020 — In the Gospel of John, from which all the gospel texts have come this Lent, there’s a special term for what we usually call “miracles.” John calls them “signs.” By using that term John says that any miracle, water into wine, making the blind to see or the lame to walk, and (this week) raising... Read More

Churches Go On-Line

March 23, 2020 — Yesterday was like many Sundays. We did our particular getting up rituals. We had breakfast. We showered. I shaved. We got dressed, nothing fancy but a little better than our usual these days. Then we sat down at the dining table, faced a computer and went to church. Via ZOOM we joined the congregation of... Read More

A Spiritual Challenge (2)

March 22, 2020 — The ever-entertaining Maureen Dowd made an observation about President Trump’s leadership yesterday. I quote her not to engage in Trump-bashing (I’ve reached my quota for this month), but because her description is such a superb illustration of what I last week called a “technical problem,” borrowing the term of Ron Heifetz. “Trump,” writes Dowd, “is... Read More

By Stages

March 20, 2020 — The other day a friend wrote from the midwest, saying that he and his wife, were like the rest of us coming to grips with the COVID-19 “by stages.” On Wednesday, he wrote, “Like everyone else, we are sorting out how to ride this out for however long it endures. The ‘making real’ process has... Read More

What Keeps Me Grounded?

March 19, 2020 — Our new book, Useful Wisdom: Letters to Young (and not so young) Ministers, is now out and should be available at the publisher’s website. I say “our” because the book came to be when our daughter Laura (a UCC minister) and her colleague, Brittany, (also a UCC minister) came up with a list of questions and topics... Read More

Tulips

March 18, 2020 — When Linda and I went to Ballard Market two days ago the first thing she put into our cart, with a knowing smile, was a bundle of tulips. Since we were only supposed to be doing “essential shopping,” I wondered, are tulips essential? Monday’s tight buds are now, on Wednesday, lavish pink and white blossoms.... Read More

Older posts