Coffee house haiku

at the café –
coffee and music
fuel my blues

A Christmas Poem

On this the day to celebrate
the birth of our great King,
we gather `round and share a feast,
and later we will sing.
And this morn we opened gifts
we bought with thoughts of love -
but of course our gifts all pale
compared to the one from above.

A mall Santa's prayer (repeat)

As I hold each precious child
let me treat each one
with the love and care I'd show
Your most holy Son.

awkward silence (haiku)

low tide
awkward silence as we watch
crabbing gulls

Santa time again

Just got my mall schedule. I start November 16, and pretty much do every Thursday and Friday evening shift until Chistmas. I'm even on for Christmas Eve.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

(No, that's not me, but close enough.)

Update: I'm not dead yet

I used to file more regularly - but I've been split over several outlets of late.

I'm part of the team that writes for Chesterton and Friends, so I write at least one piece a week for that blog.

I've also been the community blogger for our local daily newspaper. I write several entries a week for that.

Plus, I work one full time job (teacher) and one part-time job (weekend radio newscaster/announcer).

And Santa season begins soon, so I'll be back in red suit at the mall in a few weeks.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

That's on top of being vice president of a library board, a member of the choir at church, and caring for a grandmother (91) and father (74), both in homes, and trying to sell my father's home.

Oh, and then there's my wife, who likes to see me occasionally (believe it or not!).

Of course, that make it difficult to keep up reader interest. And it leaves little time and energy to be creative.

Sorry about that.

I'm not quitting. I just wanted to let you know what's up.

I know less than you think

Saturday morning.

Rain.

Could be worse. Buffalo got two feet of snow. Shut them down.

I'm at the radio station, weighing my words.

Three times in the last two weeks I said too much and hurt or offended someone.

I've done that with this blog as well.

It's one of my character defects. I have repeatedly gotten in trouble because I took a joke too far, or said more than I should have, or let what I really think - or half think - leak out through the usual polite social filters.

But I have enough consience to let it bug me.

I'd be a lousy politician - or deacon.

But I am good at alienating people.

A friend and I once joked about starting a band called Pompous Arrogant Intellectuals. We were mocking out all the arrogant traditionalist Catholics who harrassed us at the Catholic newspaper where we worked. The kind of people who look for nits to pick just for the sake of proving they could identify the nits. In Latin.

We joked the band's first song was going to be, "We know more than you."

Of course, we were revealing something about ourselves as well.

At least he was a genuine intellectual. As for me, I really belong in Pompous Arrogant Psuedo Intellectuals.

Just call me Papi.

Confessions of a homophobe

Hi. My name is Lee, and I’m a homophobe.

At least that’s what I’ve been called.

Never mind that one of my oldest friends is gay, or that over the years I’ve had good relationships with gay co-workers and members of groups that I belong to, or that I defended a gay employee of a school where I worked, or that when some people wanted to fire a gay musician at church I spoke up to say it would be wrong, or that I have publicly stated that I oppose refusing a gay person a job or an apartment just because he or she is gay.

Nope. I’m a homophobe – a term that literally means “fear of men,” but which has morphed into a pejorative term meaning hater and bigot.

All because I say I believe homosexual acts to be morally wrong, and I oppose gay marriage.

Homophobe.

Well in that case –

I believe stealing is morally wrong. I am a larcenophobe.

I believe terrorism is morally wrong. I am a terrophobe.

I believe pornography is morally wrong. I am a pornophobe.

I believe some Democratic Party positions are morally wrong. I am a demophobe.

I believe some Republican Party positions are morally wrong. I am a republiphobe.

I believe lying is morally wrong. I am a fibophobe.

I believe spreading malicious rumors about people is morally wrong. I am a gossiphobe.

I believe unfairly and inaccurately labeling people is morally wrong. I am a stigmaphobe.

I guess I’m just a phobic kind of guy.

Chesterton clerihew

Gilbert Chesterton
took a long time again
to finally get home
but he made it to Rome.