LETTERS

Dear Winn: Thanks for the reminder that Lent may be 40 days but Easter’s 50. I don’t like to give a season too much power, but this Lent felt relentless. There have been some brighter spots since Easter broke, and I’m mucho thankful.   The big news around here is that Sarah has decided to…

Dear Winn: Your last letter took me back to far too many Holy Week weekends where I felt that pressure to deliver the goods. I can even remember a certain church member telling me one Easter Sunday pre-service, “Today’s when you earn the money, preacher.” I never liked that church member, always thought he was…

Dear Winn: Thanks for your letter. I truly loved what you wrote about Seth, how he wants to eat the same food and to visit the same places every time the two of you head to a Clemson game. I believe that sense of constancy is one of the things our children most want from…

Dear Winn: It was so good to be in your presence last weekend, to see your face, and to hear your voice. It doesn’t seem like that was a week ago today. Man, time zips. And yes, I did think it sorta strange we were in Conroy country when he died. There were a couple…

Dear Winn: Manure on the barn boots. I like that. I like that a lot. That there are physical indicators of where you’re from and what you do, and those speak volumes as to who you are. Every once in a while someone will ask me, “Do I hear traces of a Southern drawl?” I’ll…

Dear Winn: Thanks for your letter. To think of you and Miska and your good boys traipsing around Acadia and Prince Edward Island fills me with such happiness. I’m thankful you have the vision to set out for haunts like that. You’re etching memories into your boys’ brains, and days far into the future those…

Dear Winn: I loved the piece Ginsberg wrote about Scalia. I needed to hear that too. I really did.   In your last letter you wrote “I wish I had words to describe the estrangement I feel from the dominant storylines in our world.” Thanks for that line. Man I feel that too. I confess…

Dear Winn: I attended our Ash Wednesday service last night. I was up yesterday at 4am, my usual rise, so by 6:30pm, put me in a darkened room with candles flickered by quiet whispery scripturey voices, boy I was captain drowsy eyes. But I longsuffered, its what you do. The service was full of elements,…

Dear Winn: I think you know this, but sometimes its good to be clear. This is letter writing between friends, not a ping-pong game, so I don’t have to wait for you to hit the ball back before I return, the same goes for you. Capiche?   An old high school friend of mine died…

Dear Winn: Well, the girls have got their second snow day in a row. The school district actually called it last night, which surprised us all. But there was some sort of glitch yesterday morning in the text-notification system and evidently a number of parents didn’t know school was cancelled. I’m sure those parents voiced…