I never attended summer camp. I offer this as a confession of sorts. I know that we love our camps here in Wilmette. We go to workshops; the Park District has classes and opportunities for all ages. March is drawing to a close and from the youngest to the oldest of us we likely have our summers planned out already. We know where we will be at camp. We’re probably even excited about it. It would be a lie if I said that it didn’t bother me, my historic lack of summer camp. Yet, I still don’t go away in the summer if I can help it. I don’t enroll in a class. I grew up in the South and have never…

I promised James that I would write about St. Patrick’s Day. Why? Well, because it might irritate him and as one who finds creative irritation to be a form of affection, I must oblige him. Frivolity has its place. God laughs. It is possible to love Felini and Mell Brooks. Men in Tights…in Italy! James, I hold you in great affection. Let the frivolity begin.  The High Season has just passed. I play in a little folk ensemble specializing in pub tunes, sailor shanties, songs of love lost, war gained, and freedom from the oppressor. I sing in an Irish band. It’s a great joy. To sing in any band …

On the Internet, someone posted a map of Chicago with an estimated “damage zone” theorizing what the devastation would be like if the tsunami that rocked the coast of Japan were to hit the Chicago and North Shore coastline. Suffice it to say that Wilmette would be gone. It would have been ground away to nothing. I don't know that we need such an example to begin to recognize the magnitude of the destruction. I hate to think of ways to traumatize us further, but to be selfish, I am traumatized a bit and I hate feeling alone in it. That, however, is the nature of trauma. It isolates us. Even …

Like many people, I grew up all over the place. When someone asks me “Where are you from?” or “Where did you grow up?” I usually offer some abridged version of the truth. I tell them “rural Virginia” or “outside of Richmond.” It’s true that I spent many formative years in Doswell, Virginia, but the truth is that I grew up moving from place to place, and even lived in two different homes in Florida for a while there. It’s just simpler to say “rural Virginia” than to give the whole nomadic biography.So, I have lived in suburbs, exurbs, “urbs” and the countryside. I didn’t always give these …

Egypt and Wisconsin. These two communities would seem to be strange bedfellows on the surface of things; they are worlds apart. But then the events of the last few weeks start to tell a different story. During the last several weeks the news media has been covering the various and mostly peaceful protests in the Middle East. The region, some speculate, is experiencing a shift in its political center. Will it become more moderate? Perhaps. There is much that remains to be seen and only time will tell if these changes that appear to be taking place in countries like Egypt will be positive for …

Do you look forward to this day or do you dread it? Valentine’s Day. We extol the magical virtues of romantic love once a year every year. People are divided about this holiday as they are with no other. Loneliness or joy? Romance or solitude? These appear to be the only two options available to us on this day. It’s such a shame, really, that we have limited the scope of love to such a narrow focus. So, let’s talk about love, baby, wide and generous, gifted and received, shall we? I get to preside at weddings. I see it as one of the perks of my vocation. They are almost always a great time, a…

Fellow Patch contributor James Stoker shared a wonderful story about how he and his neighbors came together to clear the snow from their driveway. Stoker wrote of their hard work, the camaraderieand the shared joy in the arrival of the industrial strength snow blowers. Neighborliness is a great thing. (That he thinks I should have named this column Straight Tripp'n is also a great thing, but a topic for another conversation.) There was also a story of an entire block in Chicago where the neighbors banned together to shovel their street, their alleys and their sidewalks. The kids played on the…

I like to walk in the snow. I don’t mean that deep stuff you see in Wisconsin. I don’t have that kind of constitution. I mean I like to walk the sidewalks of Wilmette when the snow is falling ever so gently from the sky. The snow engages my imagination and I find myself envisioning Wilmette as it was a century ago before Chicago expanded and the village became a suburb. I pull on my wool coat, my hat, my gloves and my scarf, and make my way into the nostalgic cold. Walking around the village is something I started doing after about a year of living here. I was having a difficult time feeling …

I once worked at a little cafe in the Shockoe Bottom district of Richmond, Virginia. I was the morning baker. I would arrive before the morning papers were delivered and start making the bagels and cakes and sweets for the morning customers. It was a fun job to have right after graduating college. I met new people every day, but what I enjoyed most of all were the regulars.Some came in once a week. Some came in every day. Every Tuesday one woman would arrive and order a muffin and a cup of coffee. She would then sit down and work on her lesson plans for the day. She taught creative writing at…

This past Monday we took a little time to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—activist, civil rights leader, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and Baptist minister. It's always that last one that trips me up, as I am also a Baptist minister. The public profile for the “professionally religious” is not always positive these days, but here's a national holiday about someone who is religious. Why? Clearly, it's not because we wish to celebrate his religiosity. Not at all. And that would likely be a terrible mistake if we did. What we celebrate is the scope of his vision, and how that led to the …

She was 9 years old. I still cannot get that out of my head. I know on some level that a life is a life and all loss is devastating. So many people are lost to us every day across the globe through acts of violence. Still, she was just 9 years old, a child of this century, our future, just as all our children are our future. Now she's gone and many of us stand in shock and grief unable to imagine what her parents must be going through. They were, indeed, “robbed.” So when her mother asked for peace and kindness, I wept.Would you, or I have the courage to ask for peace and kindness if our …

I have this list. I don't know if you keep track of these things, but I actually keep a list of moments that matter to me, or things that happen in the world that I think will make a difference to the community at large. Someone famous does something significant? I put it on the list. Something monumental occurs like a volcanic eruption? I put it on the list. Here we are at the beginning of 2011 and I find myself reviewing my list from 2010.  The thing about this year that's different than other years is that I find myself focusing more on events that span more than the last year alone. I …