Trish Hermanson's Blog: Croutons - Seasoned Bits of Life, page 13

Will Impeachment Lead to Civil War?

     Will impeachment of the President lead to civil war, as some assert? Not from what I’ve observed as I’ve lived through two previous impeachment proceedings in our nation’s history. When I was a congressional intern in Washington, D.C., I sensed something creepy swirling through the corridors of power in the White House. An air of arrogance, secrecy. Only through an impeachment inquiry did we realize the extent of the abuse of power. Richard Nixon resigned, and as a nation, we pushe...

Toppling the Myth of Columbus

     Pop quiz: who discovered America? It wasn’t Christopher Columbus. He wasn’t even the first European to establish a New World settlement. Viking Leif Erikson did that five centuries before Columbus at about the same time that Polynesian mariners crossed the Atlantic, taking South American sweet potatoes back to their islands.     
     So who were the first explorers? Ancestors of modern Native Americans who arrived fifteen thousand years ago by crossing the land bridge that then con...

October 03rd, 2019

     I hurt two people recently. Big time.     
     I didn’t mean to. I had good intentions, but sloppy words.     
     I asked their forgiveness, and they extended it, but they still hurt. And I hurt for them. Will they ever heal from this? It’s taken me years to recover from some slights from others. Will it take them that long?     
     I’m asking God to instigate his amazing Recycling Program, to somehow turn my stupidity into something good in their lives. That would be a miracle....

Chalking Up My Circles of Life

     I know there is a God and I’m not Him, so why do I fret so much? Does my huffing and puffing solve the world’s problems and save the environment and keep the grass from dying from my neighbor’s dog pooping on it? I don’t think so.     
     So, with the “help” of my grandson Oak, I’m corralling my ever-expanding concerns through Stephen Covey’s book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”     
     Covey says we each live in a large Circle of Concerns, things we care about or...

Getting Swept Away?

     I did it again - I allowed myself to get swept away in busyness. Why do I do that?     
     I don’t have the excuse of obligations of someone like Eugene H. Peterson, a world-renowned author and lecturer. Yet even with his full schedule, Peterson admitted he sometimes got caught up in busyness simply “because I am vain. I want to appear important. Significant.”     
     Ouch. Do I bloat my schedule to try to look important?     
     Vanity isn’t the only thing that tricked Peterson...

My Miracle Friend Jerry

     If my friend Jerry had been been born with Down Syndrome a century ago, his life expectancy would have been ten, but instead, a group of us recently celebrated his fifty-second birthday by slicing into his favorite cake, chocolate-cherry.     
     Instead of a sheltered life, Jerry’s a rock star wherever he goes. At the rec center, he wears his Incredible Hulk t-shirt that says “I’m Kind of a Big Deal,” and he fist bumps others as he cycles under the instruction of his personal tra...

Partying! with Down-and-Outers

     I’m helping dish up a picnic in the park to several hundred down-and-outers: a woman with a burn covering half her face; a man with all his possessions in a Sears shopping cart; a woman who was homeless for seven years before squeezing into a crowded apartment; bikers and their babes; a woman with one hand.     
     We serve a banquet on tablecloths with centerpieces that say “You Are Cherished.” We hand out four kinds of meat, corn on the cob, salads, chunks of watermelon, two kin...

My Madhouse with a Mammogram

     It’s smashing time, the annual ritual in which my twin orbs are pressed into pancakes and x-rayed, to be studied by a stranger.    
     And I’m a “call back,” one whose pictures weren’t “quite right,” so I’ve held my breath through another torturous compression. Now, I’m trapped in a waiting room. My choices here? To flip through a twenty-six-year-old magazine about houseplants (I’m not joking), or read an article about how supermodel Gisele Bündchen battled anxiety.     
     Why...

Reaching for the Touch of God

     I was so overwhelmed when I saw this painting that I wanted to reach toward the touch of God as He reaches out to infuse life into Adam. At this traveling exhibit of works by Michelangelo, I learned a strange twist about this artist who is considered the greatest painter/sculptor of all time - he rarely signed his creations. Yet whether they are signed or not, they are of inestimable worth because they have the touch of the master on them.     
     Just as we have the touch of a ma...

Barbara's Trip from Woodstock to Woodstock

     She was one of those folks Joni Mitchell sang about - a child of God walking along a road that led to Woodstock. Seeds of goodwill from attending that music festival took root in Barbara Moore’s soul but lay dormant for years, squelched by life in the fast lane. Then Barbara asked what she really wanted. “To get back to the garden.”     
     She was shocked when she learned about the effects of hunger on children in America. They often perform poorly in school because they can’t co...