Welcoming Bad Bunny Into Our Household

Just as millions of Christians worldwide start up the on-ramp towards Easter Sunday, a certain mega-star has joined — in a manner of speaking — this particular clergy family. If you don’t know him (and that can be forgiven), here are some facts: he has been the most streamed artist of the year on Spotify, his genre is called reggaeton, he is huge throughout the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and also in New York City (where this photo was taken, during a … Read More

Rescue Dogs…Any Which Way

It’s been so long since I’ve checked in here that, if I were to bring any animals at all to this site, these would be the most appropriate choice. But another species has been on my mind. And I daresay you’ll be relieved to hear about anything other than politics right about now. Some of you have been doggedly —oh, my topic slipped out– following all the mostly dreary news of late; you need a break. So, trying to be … Read More

The Lawn Looks Lenten, But Easter Will Come

How many words do you know that have one “u” right after the other? And if you do know one, do you also know how to pronounce it? My husband, who regularly passes along interesting tidbits of knowledge to me, taught me the term “Easter Triduum” just the other day, when he was pondering the plethora of sermons he needed to present over the three days we’re in right now. Needless to say, Easter itself has come around plenty of … Read More

Ah, Marriage: In Any Form, It’s A Mystery

Just when you think, after about 25 years in the marriage pond, you might be getting the hang of it, you realize there might be a whole other way of swimming than the one you learned—the one you’re still learning, actually. That’s kind of how it feels when you have a burgeoning anthropologist in the family who is studying how polygamy has worked, over generations, in peaceful communities on a distant continent. In this country, we’ve been widening our definitions … Read More

From My Own Book of Revelation: All Pastors’ Wives are not Alike

Not long after I started this blog three and a half years ago, some people questioned the title. They said, “Why identify yourself as a ‘pastor’s wife’ when you’re obviously more than that? It’s so limiting.” This is true to an extent. In a way, I guess, I was poking some fun—right from the beginning—at the label. Show me a stereotype, almost any kind, and I’ll try hard to show the exception. In this case, I didn’t have to try … Read More

Going to the Rim, Forever UConn

Passover is well underway, and my husband is out washing feet tonight because it’s also Maundy Thursday. Before Easter gets the best of us, at least around here, I want to cast a backward glance and try to offer up a little tribute to the UConn Huskies, to nostalgia, and to that pesky ambivalence about big-time sports. All at once, if I may. It was a little more than a week ago now that we enjoyed the back-to-back national championships … Read More

The Varieties of Religious Experience, Updated

When our first son was born, a good friend and upstairs neighbor gave us a HUGE black and white mounted photograph of the philosopher William James. I’ll have to ask him again where he got it, but he always did move in highly intellectual circles. Anyway, we were thrilled to put the towering thing right in the corner of the baby’s bedroom, so that he could feel no pressure at all about growing up smart. In one packing episode or … Read More

Preachers’ Wives and Daughters Tell it on the Telly

These days, I’m a little confused about whether the main function of television is to give us a break from our regular lives or to reveal aspects of other people’s lives that may in turn shed light on our own.  Maybe, even before this whole “reality” genre took off, it’s always been a little bit of both.  In any case, when I learn about new shows that come right into my territory, I become a bit like a four-legged creature:  … Read More