Lane Morris Buckman's Blog, page 2

Walk Humbly with Your God

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. John 15:13

For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Romans 13:9

He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy...

Dear Judy Blume

Dear Judy Blume,

My son started asking me some hard-to-answer questions recently. While I did my best to share what I thought was important for him to know—and maybe over-shared because that’s who I am, I also offered him books. “I can get you some books? You can read those, and then ask me any questions those don’t answer. Would that help?” Because our household reads like it is a tenet of faith, he jumped on that. Several dozen recommendations later, I picked the four books I thought would...

A Word About Politics

A few years back, when I met Tamara, one of the first things I did was stalk her blog. Of course, the first thing I read has stuck with me since, and I think about it more often than you’d probably imagine.

You should read the whole piece, but I’ve pulled out the quotes that get me to the gist of where I want to be in this entry:

In English, I am sloppily verbose. I have a treasure trove of vocabulary at my disposal and search for just the right words to make my points. I use two, three, four...

Я не знаю

I’ve made it through the first three Pimsleur lessons, and my self imposed structure of daily alphabet writings and number recitations. Given my general lack of motivation, I think that’s pretty swell.

Listen, those Pimsleur lessons are no joke. 30 minutes each, and at the end of every one, I’ve said, “Oh, thank god! It’s over!” In three lessons, you come away with about 25 words, 10 different phrases, two verbs, and two forms of masculine/feminine noun endings. That’s a chunk to learn in 1.5...

Do You Understand Russian?

I started my first day back inШкола русского языка (Russian school) today. I wrote my alphabet five times, and repeated numbers one through ten until my child thought the Matrix had glitched. Four is my favorite Russian number, btw. It just sounds happy. Four is a happy, little bluebird of a word. Five sounds like you are rejecting something with great disgust.

Once I was alone in the car, I switched on my Pimsleur cd (Do you understand Russian?), and started ecoutant et en répétant the Russi...

The Year of Living Russianly

You might know that I studied Russian for five years (because that’s how long it took me to graduate college), and that I taught Russian grammar for a semester (because that’s how long it took me to hate teaching first year Russian students). You might also know that I have lost 99% of my fluency since 1995. I mean, I can still scowl at James Bond movies, and feel cranky when people interchange “R” with “Я” or “N” with “И” (because they are entirely different sounds, you donkeys!), but beyond...

Permanent Press Forehead

Years, and years ago, I started a new job, and I was sure that my coworker hated me. Sure, sometimes she would smile at me, but the smile never reached her eyes, and most of the time, she just watched me with a moue of disdain. It was weeks before I realized she smiled and looked at everyone that way. If I’m completely honest, I’d started to think she wasn’t very bright because she never showed even the slightest expression of interest in anything, and even when her voice was laughing, her fa...

Thanksgiving Wish

Thor and I were talking about friends, and I said, “I know this is a silly question, but I know my answer, and I’m just interested in yours. How do you know when you’ve made a friend? What does ‘friend’ look like?”

He thought a moment and said, “I think you know you’re friends when you start spending time together on purpose, and start sharing things because you want to.”

I thought that was an excellent definition, and much better than my own.

According to Thor, you don’t need to have a lot i...

What Leon Lett Taught Me

In 1992, Superbowl XXVII was a blowout for the Cowboys against the Bills. It’s a game that I will never forget, not for the win, but for one play in particular.

Toward the end of the game, Leon Lett recovered a fumble and ran it toward the goal line. Just yards away from a touchdown, he slowed, lowered the ball, and started a celebratory shuffle, cut short when one of the Bills slapped the ball out of his hand like your mother slapping the sass off your face. He crossed the goal line in a tu...

Trusting Fear

The other night, I got into an Uber in Marietta, Georgia, and settled in for a ride back to my hotel in Atlanta. I thanked the driver for picking me up, and he adjusted his rear view mirror and said in the kind of low, reverent voice reserved for television serial killers, “Thank you for calling me, and for allowing me this blessing for my family.”

The way he said it, he might have meant dinner on the table, or me as dinner on the table. Who knew?

Then he said, “I’m going to give you a really...