Parker Stripped

This is my first column of the new year, or perhaps I should say ‘a’ new year, since they seem to come around quicker and quicker as I get older. But there’s one thing that never seems to get old and that’s the word ‘new’. This makes sense of course, since ‘new’ is the opposite of ‘old’, isn’t it? But …

If you’re a long time reader of this column you might remember that in the fall of 2016 I talked about walking the first 200 miles of an ancient Christian pilgrimage, the Camino de Santiago. What I didn’t say in that article was that I was nearly positive that I was through with the Camino. I wouldn’t be going back …

Recently I returned from a trip to South East Asia. I spent two weeks overseas doing some teaching, encouraging and visiting with friends and new acquaintances alike. It was a good trip, but a very soggy one. Now I know what they mean by “rainy season”, and let me tell you, they aren’t kidding around with the rain over there. …

Last week I experienced (endured, underwent?) an annual tradition at Christ’s Church on the River, and many other churches, called VBS. For those of you who don’t know VBS stands for Vacation Bible School. And it’s something else! Vacation Bible School began in Hopedale, Illinois way back in 1894. Sunday school teacher D. T. Miles, who also was a public …

I think it’s interesting to stop every once in a while and pay attention to things that usually just slip right by me. One such topic is the number of holidays that occur during any given month. Here’s all the major holidays that I could find that happen in the month of May: May Day, Cinco de Mayo, National Teacher …

In case you didn’t know it, last night – April 8th – was this year’s ‘WrestleMania.’ No, I didn’t watch it, since I’m one cheap guy and refuse to pay for things like that. And no, the results of the matches aren’t important here at all. But there’s just one big point I want to make this month and here …

We hear a lot now days about the value of family and that’s good. I often think that the more the American family deteriorates, the more we talk about how important family is; as if we can make our families healthy and whole just by wishing! Of course it takes a lot more than that. But I don’t think we …

It’s amazing the kind of things that pass for news stories nowadays, isn’t it? Just the other day a news personality who I follow on social media mentioned the results of a new study and wondered what her followers thought of it. So I told her. This column is a longer, more thoughtful version of that response. As reported by …

At the beginning of a new year, I want to address something that’s been weighing on me for quite some time now. It’s something that we’d all be so much better off if there was a whole lot less of it in the world. I’m talking about hype. It blares at us from every corner. From the endless “breaking news” …

In case you missed it, it’s December already, and I’m already a few days late with this column. So don’t ask me what happened to the rest of 2017 because obviously I have no idea! We have less than a month left till the year is over and I’m a year older and a bit befuddled about how all this …