Faces & Places

“For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.

Changes urged in funding community colleges

A report submitted to state leaders ahead of the 88th legislative session’s opening in January urges lawmakers to develop “an innovative new model” to fund community colleges.

Humble, Ordinary, and Familiar

The holiday season gnaws at me. I touched on this last week and I have written about it at length over the years, including a few Merle Haggard-inspired essays.

2 Cents Worth

Good morning from Aspermont, Texas, grab you a cup of coffee or a good cup of hot cocoa and set and visit with me awhile.

Crime & Punishment and Pride & Prejudice

Whether it’s by design or merely capitalized on as it evolves later, fictional storytellers often convey an overall message or theme.

Thanks

I wrote earlier this month about how there are a couple of weeks out of the year when this publication takes a reprieve from the normal news cycle. Thanksgiving week is one of them.

Let the healing begin

If you are a reader of this newspaper that also regularly tunes in when the latest episode of the Fisher County Commissioners Court is broadcast from the courthouse each month, you know this week was another popcorn-fest that viewers have come to love.

Panic buttons, locked doors for Texas schools

Texas public schools would have to install panic buttons in classrooms and ensure all doors and windows are locked and monitored under new proposed safety standards released last week by the Texas Education Agency.

The Power of Roots

“The provincial who cultivates only his roots is in peril, potato-like, of becoming more root than plant. The man who cuts his roots away and denies they were ever connected with him withers into half a man.” --John Graves, Goodbye to a River I have been re-reading “Goodbye to a River” recently.

Gratitude

When you write several thousand words a week, 52 weeks per year, it’s easy to lose track of what was written last month, let alone last year.