“Tending to Grace”

A teen overcomes a bad start. (Bergeron Image)

If it had not been for a writing class that I attended – the only male in a sea of patient ladies – I never would have purchased the book, Tending to Grace.  But within its crisply written pages, I unearthed the gem of a story:  

A small paperback only 175 pages long, easy to read, with some chapters so small, that they consist of no more than a large paragraph.

I read it in one sitting.  You could do the same, maybe in two, but you won’t want to put the book down.  Although its theme seems aimed at young people, it pierces the artificial boundaries of age.

The main character, Cornelia, is an avid, quality reader, well beyond that of her teen years.  She stutters badly, and suffers from the neglect of her mother Lenore, a person who has fallen off the ship of life.

A Debate or a Negotiation?

A black & white Trump delivers a stark, black & white message.

Watching Donald Trump romp through the Fox News debates on Thursday, August 6, caused me to reassess the nature of his candidacy for the GOP nomination and 2016 presidential run.

Prior to that “debate,” Trump said that “I’m not a debater.”  He emphasized that he “just knows how to get things done.”

Trump is right.  He is definitely not a debater.  Yet he continues to lead the pack of GOP contenders with a 25% lead, double that of the next person, with all of the others falling well behind.

Despite the fact that his entrenched popularity appears to be at odds with many of his seemingly outrageous comments, poll respondents seem to love what he says and the style by which he delivers it.

So what’s going on?  Here are at least two clues:

GOP Presidential candidates in first debate tonight, August 3rd.

Updated 8/3/15, 9:23 PM

A first-in-the-nation Q&A debate among all GOP candidates except Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee (they declined to participate) will be held this evening at 7:00 PM at the Dana Center in Manchester, New Hampshire.

It will be carried live nationally by C-Span on Channel 109 Verizon FIOS, and on Channel 75 Cablevision.  It will also be available on iHeartRadio, and will be hosted by WGIR radio personality Jack Heath.

 

This debate, dubbed “The Voters First Republican Presidential Forum” is the brainchild of Joseph W. McQuaid, publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader, the Granite’s State’s largest newspaper, and one which reflects the independent spirit of that state.

The Shamelessness of Donald Trump

I was appalled when I came across the following Internet report in which Donald Trump is attributed to have said of John McCain that “He is not a war hero,”  followed by “he is a war hero because he was captured.” 

 

Trump reinforced his position as follows:  "I like people that weren't captured, OK? I hate to tell you. He is a war hero because he was captured. OK, you can have -- I believe perhaps he is a war hero."

Those comments were made in the mid-west at the Iowa Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa.  Later today, after this monumental gaffe, Trump tried to walk back those comments.

What was this man thinking?  Or, more precisely, not thinking?  His military record is non-existent.  He was given four student deferments and a medical deferment in the 1960’s when the Vietnam War was raging.

So, who is this man Trump to take on the military record of John McCain, a 1958 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a Naval Aviator:  Both his dad and granddad were four-star admirals in the U.S. Navy.

The Tenacity of Life

The grassy weed that refused not to be!

I first noticed it late this spring:   A tiny sprig of grass growing from one of 15 bags of garden soil piled up in the backyard, all destined to be spread out at the base of the English privets lining the northeast side of our lot.

Although the bags containing that soil are made of sturdy plastic, one of them somehow incurred a small cut somewhere along its voyage from initial packaging to the time that I plopped them all out back last fall.

 

That’s all that Mother Nature needed:  a tiny opening in a bag full of rich garden soil, and she promptly went to work, taking advantage of the opportunity afforded her.