Americanism Redux November 30, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 It's here. No more wondering. The thing is here, right in our laps. And now things happen with blinding speed. * * * * * * * (Dartmouth) The British ship with the East India Company tea is now in Boston harbor. And things have started to happen. Today, 250 years ago, … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: November 30, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux–November 16, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux November 16, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 Below the written lines are the other lines. The other lines are separators between the life we believe we lead and the life often led, the life of darkness. These other lines are thin, all too thin, though we seldom bother to notice. Until, that is, the other lines snap and wave in the … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux–November 9, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, in 1773
Americanism Redux November 9, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 Exhausting, that's what it is. The things I need to do. The things I have to do. The things I can't avoid one minute more and so will do right now. It's a crush, all of it, pressing in on me. Do them without illusion because there's more on the way. Yes, that's right, more on the … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: November 2, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux November 2, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 There might be one thing that you truly would never, ever give up. * * * * * * * Dr. John Connolly is doing today what he loves doing most, adventuring on a river, seeing the prospects of a new life, absorbing the implications of lost worlds and how the world of now came from … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: October 26, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux October 26, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 The marriage you expected, and the marriage you have. One is the life of love. The other is the life of reality. If you're lucky or blessed or both, the two intersect. They share some ground. The record of the sharedness is the story of the marriage. (her ring) * * * * * * … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: October 19, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux October 19, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 It comes all jumbled up and twisted together. Knotted and clutched up, in a ball. You have to do the untying and unraveling. Hold a string in one hand, a different string in the other hand, a third string between your teeth and, looking down, you still see about three hundred other … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux–October 12, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux October 12, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 The darkness. Oh, the darkness. Into the darkness I see. * * * * * * * The wolves stay quiet and deep in the forest. Ashes in the campfire are still warm. The gray light of an autumn dawn covers the land and the headwaters of Wallen Creek. Eight people are asleep. Twenty … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux–October 5, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux October 5, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 It's coming. On the water. A Boston newspaper reprints a letter cited in a Philadelphia newspaper. The reprinted letter describes shipments of tea leaving England bound for Philadelphia, Boston, and New York City. A ship operator has refused to carry the tea but other ship captains … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: September 28, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux September 28, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 The ties that bring us together. They bind. They break. They are a physical presence. They are a metaphysical moment. * * * * * * * The door to her jail cell opens. Hagar, the black woman of unknown age, walks out of her cell, a sheriff from the eastern shore of Maryland leads … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux-September 21, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux September 21, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 The future is in front of you. It's just ahead, in the direction that your face is facing. Always in front. But where's the thing that affects your future? Is it further in front, beyond your sight? Or off to the side, hiding, or behind you, out of your field of vision? Ask … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux-September 14, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Year Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux September 14, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 The world I know and love is falling apart. Falling apart. What can I do? What can I do to help? Is there something, a talent I possess or an opportunity given to me, that can make a difference? Now is the time. Right now, not next year, not next whenever when the stars have … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux–September 7, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux September 7, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 In New York City, the news is twenty-four hours old. Here and there, clusters of a few people stand and murmur next to cobblestone streets. Then they disappear into the taverns. They're talking about the day-old news. Came aboard ship and landed in the newspaper called the New York … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: August 31, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux August 31, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 Well, well, at last the news has arrived in London. The effects of imperial-colonial disputes in Boston and Massachusetts have crossed the ocean. Today, 250 years ago, a London newspaper prints a report on the letters of Governor Thomas Hutchinson and Lieutenant Andrew Oliver secretly … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: August 24, Your today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux August 24, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 Close your eyes. To see clearly, close your eyes. Behind eyelids, in the loss of sight, your mind's eye begins to see. In the half-dark, with trails drifting across your vision and points forming into patterns, settle in to let your mind's eye open up. Watch the past begin to show on … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: August 17, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux August 17, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 So ruled, says the judge in Augusta County, British colony of Virginia...and David Essex, who has been caught after running away as a servant from the man who claims to own his labor, can either pay a sum of money or work two more weeks beyond his obligated term of work. It's Essex's … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: August 10, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux August 10, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 Sometimes you're just in one of those moods. * * * * * * Think back in your memory. And write it down. Recall what you've seen or read. And write it down. A thing that has stayed in your mind. And write it down. He's in a mood and decides to think back. (Melancholy, by … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: July 27, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux July 27, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 The antlers of bucks are just now coming in. They've shed the old to make way for the new. The moon of the month, now in its last phase, is named for the males among the deer. (A fading quarter-light) What a Buck Moon it's been for Janet Livingston. Twenty-nine years old, … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: July 20, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux July 20, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 The change I see in front of me is the change I... ...embrace...or fear...or expect...or dread...or need to prepare for...or have no way of preparing for. And on it goes for me, my family, my circle of loved ones and friends, my community, my nation—or empire—today, 250 years ago. … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: July 13, Your today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux July 13, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 Nemisis. That's his name. (the mountain of Nemisis) He was left, left around here somewhere on this rise of land in the thick, dense forest. His comrades told him they would hide him so the Natives he'd been fighting wouldn't come back and torture him to death. They placed a … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: Your Today, July 6, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux July 6, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 Here they come. Just stand over here with me. Pay attention and keep your eyes and ears open. **************************************** Throughout the day, they come. One person, a pair, a small group. They say much the same things. --He looks so natural. --It's simply amazing, … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: Overview of Second Quarter (April, May, June) 1773–A 6-Minute Scan And Span Of The Weekly Stories
Don't have time to read all the stories of Americanism Redux for Q2 1773? Not a problem. Take 6 minutes and get a video overview. And you're always invited and encouraged to double-back and read the stories themselves. It's for you and your leadership as we move toward the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. https://youtu.be/Fukt-jJ3HNc (click the link above) … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: June 29, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux June 29, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 A second thought? Do I give it a second thought? Do those things that just happen to me right now, the things that will define the 24-hour today, do I really know they'll last beyond today? It depends on the things, on what they actually are. That's the truth 250 years ago today and … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: June 22, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux June 22, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 Filled with them. The pages are filled with them. The people—men, women, children—who are on the run, seeking freedom from some various forms of forced labor. They are enslaved. They are apprenticed. They are bound by contract to one or the other of people who expect forced labor by … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: June 15, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, In 1773
Americanism Redux June 15, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 Three ties that bind, British to colonial British, colonial British to British. But what is in the ties, and will binding become a bond or a bounding? * * * * * * * Hand me that pen. Yes, paper, too. I'll get the ink. Now stand back and leave me alone. I've never been more furious … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: June 8, Your Today, On The Journey To The American Founding, 250 Years Ago, in 1773
Americanism Redux June 8, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 In the sights of your eyes...on a street in Paris, France. I want to see her, move aside and let me closer to the street. Has anyone seen her yet? I can't wait to know if she's as beautiful as they say she is in her portraits. I may look a mess, maybe I'm hungry a lot of the time but none … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux: June 1, Your Today, on the Journey to the American Founding, 250 Years Ago, in 1773
Americanism Redux June 1, your today, on the journey to the American Founding, 250 years ago, in 1773 The world is a place where horses scream. From terror, panic, uncontrollable fright. Brought on by a penetrating strike into the deepest instinctual sense of self-preservation. The final breath of death that closes what began with the first breath of birth. This horse screams as the … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux – January 19 – 250 Years Ago Today – in 1773
Americanism Redux January 19, 250 years ago today, in 1773 Teaching and education. My life. I teach young people how to think. I teach adults how to worship. God made me to live this life. I've met a person, a parent, actually a step-father for whom I've developed great respect. The step-father respects me, too, I think. Yes, I'm certain he does. That's not bragging. It's a mutually … [Read more...]
Americanism Redux – Today – January 4 – 250 Years Ago in 1773
Americanism Redux January 4, 250 years ago today in 1773 (Colony House, Newport, Rhode Island) Clean out the room where the hearing will be held. Do the work. Sweep the floors. Wipe down the seats and the rails. Stack firewood. Candles at the ready. Make sure nothing from the first floor works it way up the stairs to the second floor. First floor: the marketplace, scene of money … [Read more...]
September 7–Today–250 Years Ago
Americanism Redux September 7, 250 years ago today The signboard of The Dog and Pot hangs over the front door of the same-named tavern in Boston. Sign of The Dog and Pot tavern in Boston Inside, candles flicker in lanterns fixed to the walls. Scattered across heavy tables are tankards of ale, a tin plate or two, a carved wooden bowl, and half-filled bottles. The air smells of old … [Read more...]
July 29-Today-250 Years Ago
Americanism Redux July 29, 250 years ago today It's a river called "Mad", flowing into a river called "Big Waters", or Miami as it's known in the language of one native people, flowing into a river so appealing that another native people used their rival language to find the word for "Beautiful"... The Ohio. In these watered lands a four-year old boy lives with a large family. His … [Read more...]
Beneath The Surface
Something happened the other day and it bothered me. I'd like to share it with you to see what you think. It's only a couple of minutes' reading. Here we go. On Twitter I follow a person who sends out a daily tweet on "this date in the American Revolution." Whatever today is, the guy tweets about some event that happened on that same day back in the American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783. It … [Read more...]
Four Decisions, Two Hours, and One Day
Benedict Arnold Saratoga Battlefield, Saratoga, New York Benedict Arnold. If you know the name you know why. He betrayed the American cause in the Revolutionary War. Switched his loyalty to the British in exchange for money and status. In America, his name is synonymous with treason, back-stabbing, the worst kind of sell-out. I still want you to know something different about him as a … [Read more...]