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Jimmy Carter exemplified the role of president as diplomat

The news of Jimmy Carter’s passing takes me back to 1976, a year that marked my own passage to adulthood. As the bicentennial year dawned, I took first notice of Carter upon his victory in the Iowa Caucuses. I followed his campaign through my high school graduation and into the summer, when I shuttled in my first car between my summer job at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida and New Smyrna Beach. I studied Carter’s campaign in my first college course on American politics that fall and proudly cast my first vote for Carter in November. My enthusiasm for Carter was driven by ...

Simple school trips … but we sure had fun

School trips have changed since I was a kid. Over Thanksgiving our granddaughter flew with her high school band to California to march in parades at Disneyland and in Hollywood. A business acquaintance told me a few weeks ago his son and his high school band are scheduled to march in New Year’s parades in Florida. We were delighted, of course, for our granddaughter and her California trip but my, my, my how school trips have changed since I was a kid. Oh, we had school trips back in those days. (Yes, kids, we even had school buses back then.) None of our trips, however, took us ...

Merry Christmas

I intentionally reserved this space for this day to wish you a Merry Christmas. But this weekend, I joined with other friends to say goodbye to an old friend who passed without ever getting the kind of recognition she deserved for her brilliance and talent as a writer. Mary Beth Ostlund-Wood could have done anything with her life and, in reality, gave a whole lot of things a good hard try. She was a reader, a researcher and a thinker. Her heart, bigger than the room in which I write at this moment, despaired for what was wrong with this world and celebrated what was right. Years ...

A man without a nickname

Among the things that I’ve never had nor have ever wanted is a nickname. My first name is unusual enough; I have no need for a nickname to set myself apart from other Arvids. I’ve only met a few. For as long as I can remember my siblings have called me Arv. That’s okay because it’s an abbreviation, not really a nickname. I detest being called “Arvie” but must confess that many years ago, in my prepubescent youth, there was one cute little gal who got by with it. Truth be told, she could have called me anything she wanted to. The immature male brain is a danger to young ...

A good Joe …

In our church Christmas pageants there is one primary character who doesn’t get many, if any, lines: Joseph, the quiet nice guy in the Christmas story. Have you ever wondered what Joseph was feeling and thinking during those months preceding and following Jesus’ birth? Times and customs change, but people don’t. His emotions may have been like those many men would experience today. Joseph — a humble carpenter who had been betrothed to a young Jewish girl named Mary. Jewish betrothals, or engagements, in Joseph’s day were as binding as marriage. The Bible isn’t specific ...

UFOs and other tomfoolery

Convenience store and grocery store news racks are not as “captivating” as they were a few decades ago when there were some fascinating “rags” on display. They displayed headlines like “Two-headed Gator-Man eats dentist!” “Spice Girls begin breeding in attempt to create Spice Army!” “This just in: Phobophobia is scary!” One such tabloid declared that Hillary Clinton had given birth to a chimpanzee. Another declared that an alien had been abducted by the Air Force. The articles were not as interesting as the headlines. How do I know? I purchased a few over the ...