On the occasion of Abraham Lincoln’s 150th birthday, Carl Sandburg spoke before Congress describing the late president as a man, “who is both steel and velvet, who is as hard as rock and soft as drifting fog, who holds in his heart and mind the paradox of a terrible storm and peace unspeakable and perfect.”…

Poor Thomas’ Almanac for January 25: In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson created the League of Nations. Up till then men settled their differences with wars.

Had Jesus been in seminary with me, He’d have laughed at our ‘purposeful ignorance.’ Once, the class got hung up on God’s meaning of ‘created in Our image,’ – the key word being ‘image.’ Frustratingly, I’d never heard so many differing ideas on the subject before. (It reminded me of former President Bill Clinton asking…

Poor Thomas’ Almanac for January 24: In 1848, James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento, California, promising wealth for the masses. The state’s been trying to live up to the hype ever since.

“No! Please don’t!” The brightness of the moon, as it beams through my bare window, is counter to my nocturnal desire to hunt and that is why we are here. The clock on my bedside, screams 1:23 in frighteningly red digital figures. “Right on time, dear,” I whisper with pleasure. I suck in a long,…

With age has come aches and pains. It’s easy to look back at one’s childhood and remember when it wasn’t so hard to bend down or climb up on something, not to mention jump off of stuff. The thought of that activity causes me to cringe because of the pain it would bring. As a…

The loss of a parent or parents is a difficulty at any age. The trauma lasts much longer than expected, and reappears at odd moments of any given day — sometimes decades later. I wish my folks were still around so I could ask questions — something about themselves, to find out if they experienced…

It seems that every modern, well-known author has a book adapted for film or video. To my way of thinking, these adaptations rob people of the ability to make pictures in their head. No one needs use their God-given imagination anymore, instead the medium implants images from one person’s perspective into the minds of all…

Poor Thomas’ Almanac for January 21:  In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to receive a medical degree in the U.S. But unlike today, she didn’t dress up as a vagina and march about to celebrate her accomplishment.

High school graduation, I lost my university scholarship and I needed to figure out what to do with my wide-open future. Thus, I applied for an internship in Chicago to work with a nationally-known broadcaster. I did well in the first two interviews. The final interview was in San Francisco. It was more of a…