Author Archives: soulmailing

It is Christmas Day here on the old West Side of Grand Rapids, and a splendidly white one at that. Chalk one up for Bing Crosby. The snow came in thick and blustery yesterday, falling in fat flurries, and has … Continue reading →

Seeing Morgan William’s game-winning shot that toppled seemingly unbeatable UConn, and sent the Mississippi State’s women’s team to the NCAA championship game, reminded me of what giant dreams a little person can accomplish. Occasionally. William, described by The New York … Continue reading →

This is how I think of Ed Dobson most often: laughing. I loved it when Ed cracked up. He had a delightful, goofy laugh, a hysterical intake of breath, in contrast to the serious attitude he adopted when it came … Continue reading →

Andrea and I put up the tree Sunday night. The humble Fraser fir had sat naked for a day in my living room, after I’d carted it from the tree farmer’s lot off Lake Michigan Drive. We draped it with … Continue reading →

A few days after seeing the fleeting supergroup Blind Faith perform in 1969, I awoke in the middle of the night with a song banging through my head. It was “Had to Cry Today,” the opening track of both the … Continue reading →

There’s no telling when or why a song gets stuck in my head. One especially troubling instance happened in the summer of 1976, when I was a young man cavorting in England. Seemingly out of nowhere appeared a brief instrumental … Continue reading →

Besides being a wonderful game in itself, baseball has a way of connecting people across time, societal groups and generations. I recently presented a program about baseball’s beauty and community-creating qualities at the Catholic Information Center of the Grand Rapids … Continue reading →

I was sitting on the porch of our cottage outside of Beulah, reading a book about the saints, when up came a volunteer friend: a chocolate-colored lab, friendly as you please. He clicked across the porch, nuzzled up to me … Continue reading →

These birds will not sit still for me. Or rather they won’t perch still on the feeder in my magnolia, just off the porch. It’s like they know I’m here with my phone camera trying to snap a picturesque shot, … Continue reading →