I am very pleased to share the Houston Chronicle’s article about the Bishop John E. Hines Center for Spirituality and Prayer.
My gratitude is boundless for Nancy Powell Moore, the Cathedral Endowment, the Episcopal Health Foundation, and all the partners who are making the Hines Center a reality.
My grandmother’s name was Beulah. That’s a difficult name for a child to pronounce, so my mother’s cousins always shortened it and called my grandmother “Aunt Boo.” When my siblings and I—her grandchildren—entered the world, her title became, simply, “Boo.”
Boo’s house was a second home to us. She lived twenty miles from Paragould, and I was at her place almost as often as I was at ours. My grandfather, Pop, built us kids a two story tree house in the weeping willow tree in their backyard. We walked to the neighborhood soda fountain for cheeseburgers and milkshakes. We were allowed to stay up until 9 p.m. on Saturday nights to eat popcorn from pie tins and watch the Carol Burnett Show. Boo was then, and her memory is now, mythic for me. Her wisdom, her love, her attention exceeded those of all others. She is the best person I have ever known.
Another week, another mass shooting. As I’ve blogged recently, I am a hunter and gun owner. I am not someone who believes the 2nd amendment should be repealed. But I am someone interested in having a studied and generous national conversation about constitutional gun control measures that may decrease the number of gun-related deaths in this country. I have also blogged on the issue of mental health and gun violence, sharing research that reveals past acts of violence to be far better predictors of future gun violence than is mental illness per se.
Navy pilot Charles Plum flew seventy-five successful missions over Vietnam. On his seventy-sixth mission he was shot down and parachuted into enemy territory, where he was held prisoner for six years. When he finally got home, Plum was a hero. He spoke around the country about his grit and endurance, receiving adulation wherever he went.
USS Kitty Hawk
God in the Midst of the City 