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Merry Christmas

Local Columns

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

Local Columns

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 ...

Local Columns

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

Local Columns

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 ...

The law according to Murphy

Local Columns

It is 1949 at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Capt. Edward Murphy is an engineer working on a project to see how much sudden deceleration a person can stand in a crash. After discovering that a transducer was wired wrong, Capt. Murphy curses the technician responsible for the error and says, “If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it.” The contractor’s project manager, listening nearby, is keeping a list of similar adages and calls this one “Murphy’s Law.” Similar philosophies have existed for years, but since 1949 the position that “anything that can go ...

People struggle

Local Columns

People struggle. But there is a fictional world that wants us to deny this. In that fiction, everyone has a set of bootstraps connected to some miraculous source that, if simply pulled upon, will lift them from their struggles to the magic of prosperity. Folks, that’s a Hallmark movie. When I moved back to Webster City I found some friends who were struggling. One, in particular, had not been raised to go without. Yet, there she was, in a position of struggle. She had a job and a child. But it wasn’t a high-dollar job, so it covered essentials most of the time, but that was it. ...