“It’s all beyond me—how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth.” – Job 40: 4 Sometimes nothing can be said. Not everything can be put into words. Language often trivializes what we’re trying to express, because our lexicon is completely inadequate to the occasion. To say the universe is vast […]
Continue readingMurderers
The string of homicides gaining national attention over the last few weeks have caused me to reminisce about the murderers I’ve known. Working in an urban outpatient clinic for substance abusers caused me to meet more than a few. A majority of the people who walked in our doors were in trouble with the law, […]
Continue readingThe Parable of The Prick and The Scum Bag
Jesus didn’t like everybody. The man so often equated with peace and love got annoyed with people. He famously chased a gaggle of businessmen out of the Jerusalem temple. He compared pharisaic lawyers to a den of poisonous snakes. On more than a few occasions, he described his own disciples as dim-witted. And to the […]
Continue readingThe Rampage of Sgt. Bales
“My rage, my fury would drive me now to hack your flesh away and eat you raw – such agonies you have caused me.” -Achilles At the beginning of the Iliad, we find Achilles sulking in his tent. Refusing to fight, because Agamemnon took his sexy, blonde war prize, Achilles doesn’t lift a finger even […]
Continue readingPenn State and Us
When I worked with drug addicts, I had a client named Ben. Ben was in his early twenties, a warehouse worker, a high school drop-out, and an alcoholic who snorted cocaine occasionally. He was in treatment because the beer and coke exacerbated his temper. Ben was not a friendly drunk. Fights with his girlfriends often […]
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