Conversations Blog

When I was growing up there was a television show called “Lassie”, about a smart collie that doubled as a superhero- saving people from all sorts of disasters. For 18 years Lassie got her humans out of danger with a bark and a wag, played by 6 different dog actors. Without saying a word, Lassie…

Sunday, November 8 & 15  | 11:15am | via ZOOM While a college student, Parkway member John Dwyer worked in the summers as a merchant seaman on Great Lakes “ore boats.” This included a summer on the Edmund Fitzgerald, which on November 10, 1975 was lost with all hands during a ferocious storm on Lake…

When the Covid epidemic first hit in March of 2020, several interesting things became hard to find, (besides toilet paper). Bicycles became hard to find worldwide, and and bicycle makers shut down. Exercise equipment, especially dumbbells became very scarce. And swimming pools and trampolines were harder and harder to come by. People were stuck in…

November is National Family Caregivers Month! 83% of the help provided to older adults in the United States comes from family members, friends or other unpaid caregivers. Nearly half of all caregivers who provide help to older adults do so for someone living with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. Who are the caregivers? • About one…

Please fast and pray with me today. The election is two weeks away, and, though this vote cannot fix all that is so badly broken in this country, it might help. • I’m praying this election will mark the beginning of the end of family separations, caging children, and demonizing immigrants. • I pray this…

A Word for the Day… I was talking with a neighbor a couple of weeks ago when the topic of the presidential debates came up. “I do not talk about politics or religion with people,” she said. “I do not think any of that matters in the whole scheme of things.” I was dumbfounded. I…

In 1972 Missouri Senator Tom Eagleton accepted the nomination for Vice President of the United States at that year’s Democratic convention. Shortly after the convention it came out that Eagleton had experienced depression and had been treated three times with electroconvulsive therapy. Immediately there were questions asked about his ability to be Vice President. The…

Humankind: A Hopeful History Rutger Bregman 2020 In the past few years I’ve gotten a bit down about humanity and all its weaknesses, hatreds, and willful ignorance. Looking around, it’s easier to despair these days that we are doomed to failure for our short-sightedness and selfishness. That make optimism seem naïve and pointless. This book…

The good news about being mentally ill in the 21st century is that it could have been much, much worse. Treatments in past ages were in many cases ineffective, damaging, or horrific. Mental illness was even less understood than it is today, and some believed that evil spirits had taken over bodies. The entire fields…