Opinion

Having solemnized my fourth wedding of the season last weekend, I now have three full months to do as I please before facilitating the final two nuptials on my schedule this fall. I could have performed two more ceremonies between now and then, but I declined those requests so that I can focus more time

Coming right up is my favorite holiday, Independence Day, and just behind that, the anniversary of an event which reminds us of America’s greatness – then and now. This will be the 240th anniversary of the day which patriots banded together to sign Mr. Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. In just a few weeks, it

We’ve all heard the same tired jokes: “Look out (insert name of locale here), (insert name of new driver here) just got his/her driver’s license!” Or, “I’ll be sure to avoid driving in your neighborhood for a while!” As the father of a 15 year-old boy with a brand new instructional driving permit, I now

Last Tuesday, June 14 was a normal deadline day. Which, if you’ve ever been in the communications field, you know is an oxymoron. There is no such thing as a “normal deadline day.” But Tuesday’s deadline, a Tuesday evening meeting at city hall and the subsequent story were all forgotten at 8:15 a.m. on Wednesday

I gave a homily about parachute pants at the wedding I officiated last weekend. Yes, you read that correctly. Parachute pants. At a wedding. In a church. I’m fairly certain that I am the first minister in the history of the world (or at least since the 1980s) to have pulled off such a feat,

You have heard all of the good news from the candidates – “Elect me and All is Well!” – but it is time to re- visit an old headache. Not that I like being the bearer of bad news, but I like to follow economic trends, and this one’s a doozy. At the end of

Someone wiser than me once said, “Happiness is losing track of how many couples one has united in the bonds of matrimony.” Actually, I said that. Just now. While my quote is probably too long and cumbersome to fit on a bumper sticker or coffee mug, it is nevertheless true. I’ve lost count of how

It did not take too many years into my teens to realize that while dad was my hero, he wasn’t exactly perfect. Dad came home from work at 5:15 every day and one day, while the news was showing a large, athletic man being led into a courtroom, dad proclaimed him, “just another militant bum

by Bruce Wallace For hours this past weekend, my wife – with her trusty composite-wood, custom paddle – and I were the only two people left on earth. The Current River can make you feel that way. Without another canoe, kayak, drunk-on-a-floatation-device, or other amphibious vessel within sight, we paddled silently with only the birds

by Travis Naughton Just over a year ago, our family took in two young children who were in need of a safe and loving home. For legal reasons, I cannot tell you about the circumstances that lead them to us, but I can tell you that we, as their relatives, saw an opportunity to give