It was a good day for omens

Saturday morning, Evanston, Illinois My daughters are both ice skaters, which makes practice ice a reality for me, several times a week. On Saturday morning, as the rest of the world is sleeping in, my older one gets to the rink at 5:30 AM. It seems like a cruel joke to play on the old

Putting the world aside

The world has lots of problems: war, poverty, disease, lack of opportunities, and an absence of hope in many places and in many hearts. These problems didn’t go away this morning, as I was watching my nine year-old skate on an ice rink here in Chicago. But they did seem far away, at least for

So much brighter

It’s Saturday morning, and in my house that means time to take my daughters to their skating lessons. The season is in full swing as winter approaches. In fact, I’m sitting in the bleachers right now, allowing my mind to wander while the ice time plays itself out. The rink they usually skate at was

The years flashed by

My daughters are both figure skaters. I’ve written of my frustrations with this activity before (I hesitate to call it a “sport”), but they enjoy it, and that counts for a lot. I wish I had something that important to me when I was a kid. When we were away for a couple of weeks

Lincoln at sunrise

I’ve written about Lincoln several times before in this space. Some of the posts are here and here and here. There are many things about human nature that disappoint me, or worse, but our enduring interest in this boy from the Kentucky backwoods always makes up for them, at least in my mind. This morning

A sport to keep away from

My two daughters have been ice skating from an early age. The first thing to know about this sport–I want to call it a hobby or activity–is that it’s terribly expensive. Ice time is not cheap, because maintaining an unnatural ice pond is an expensive proposition. But it’s only, and please pardon the expression, the