“All Lives Matter”? You Didn’t Have to Deal with This Crap — Note: Top illustration contains a racially profane term, for providing historical context only Years ago I asked my elderly mother about her childhood memories. She told me of being five years old,when her uncle took her to a carnival. …

How to use these strange times to propel your words — Never have we seen such widespread fear in our society. Yet we were warned. Scientists predicted a major pandemic “someday.” We all coasted along, visiting the world easily, indulging ourselves, our bright future continuing to crawl toward us from the horizon. These days are so different than just a few…

by Chuck Mallory To understand, you need to know I grew up in a very small town in the 1960s. My mother was able to put me in first grade at age five (we didn’t have a kindergarten) because she had to go to work. I was scared. My older…

“Half-Pint” is Gaining a Jesus-like Iconography The first thing that stands out from all the strip malls when I enter Springfield, Missouri, is the biggest megachurch I’ve ever seen. …

The Job I Loved and Lost — We ran outdoors at work, leaving the office politics behind and becoming our child-selves over a natural event. We were smart that day, like animals, paying attention to the pulse of the earth and leaving behind the hum of office machines and the drug in the coffeepot. It was the…

I didn’t post this around Christmas, or on New Year’s. I don’t like a line drawn in the sand. Christmas means joy to some, despair for others. New Year’s means new resolutions for some, sadness for others who have not moved forward. Any day is a new day. …