19 Feb 2015

What Holds You Up? In a Good Way, I Mean

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Here we go, into the beating heart of the Christian calendar again. In observance of the first day of Lent yesterday, my husband once again participated in “Ashes to Go” in downtown Concord. Apparently it, or they, went quite well. The weather was practically balmy, and lots of people stopped by. I was reminded of human mortality too…just from a little distance away. At this time of year, I am also reminded of the fact that I didn’t grow up with … Read More
12 Nov 2014

Raspberry Crumbles, and Other Forms of Hospitality

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  It’s not every day your husband brings home a raspberry crumble. Mine did, a couple of Sundays ago, when he returned from a visitation at a church where there’s apparently a woman who remembered how much he liked the raspberry crumble she made the last time he came there. Now that’s service, don’t you think?  And it’s especially heartwarming, I might add, that she made a WHOLE raspberry crumble, for him to take home (to be shared, say, with … Read More
23 May 2014

In Praise of Mud

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Whoever said that Mud Season in New England goes from this time to that time and then is over definitely never lived here…or at least not near our back field. It was soaked when we arrived about a year ago, and it’s soaked again now. People in California, having to debate the rightness or wrongness of watering their lawns, would be envious. Besides seeing no end in sight to boot-wearing time, we’re getting plenty of opportunity to contemplate the many … Read More
6 Apr 2014

The Varieties of Religious Experience, Updated

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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
6 Mar 2014

Religion, Transformed

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  How far can religion go into the popular culture until it doesn’t even resemble religion at all?  In my mind’s eye, I see a robed figure, walking with dignity, gradually being enveloped in a crowd of people who are shaking their arms, some dancing, and most definitely making a racket. When the robed figure starts acting the way the crowd does, we look closer, but we’re not altogether sure we like it. Look at this picture, for example. Isn’t … Read More
9 Feb 2014

Snowflakes not turning into Circles and other Mishaps

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Can there be any glory at all in stumbling, in things not going as planned, in mess ups?  This has been the pressing question on my mind over the past few days, because I’ve been in the midst of some of the above and have felt, well, kind of de-railed from what it was I thought I was doing. With so many eyes on Sochi now, we’re ready to be thrilled by the magnificence of athletic displays….and to gasp with … Read More
29 Jan 2014

Learning From A Not-So-Good Wife

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  Since becoming a bishop’s wife, I’ve been paying more attention to how other wives of other public figures – perhaps religious, perhaps not – conduct themselves, establish their identities, make their mark. Is there any perfect formula, I wonder, for mixing the need to be oneself, to find one’s own particular way to happiness, with the need to be a supportive spouse for a husband in the public eye? I don’t have the thing down yet, completely, but I … Read More
12 Nov 2013

All the Fixins

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Many people know my husband as a bishop, dealing with matters of the spirit, but I also know him as a guy who can, God willing, fix stuff around the house.  Now obviously there’s a pretty big difference between what is sometimes known as “Soul Repair” –a divinity school in Texas has a whole center with that name– and the seemingly endless tasks that seem to amount to nothing but keep cropping up at home.  I like to think that … Read More
3 Nov 2013

Going Back to 1918 and Finding More Than the Last Big Red Sox Win at Home

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It was windy out there a couple of days ago, matching my sense of being caught up in the sweep of history during these late October days.  I’m in the here and now, absolutely, planning my day tomorrow like everybody else; but recent events have also had a way of casting me back, providing links with other times and even other continents.  It feels a bit like being on a trapeze, arriving at those little platforms with relief, only to … Read More
25 Sep 2013

House of Bishops in the Heart of Country Music

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I’m just back from Nashville — Country Music Capital of the World and also site of the Episcopal Church House of Bishops fall conference.   Now there’s an interesting adjacency for you, or at least it just was for me, as I tried to juggle my role as spouse to a bishop at the Airport Marriott, some distance away from the heart of town, with the strong pull I felt towards most everything related to the twang of guitars – both … Read More

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