The 2020 election was 3 months ago, but America is not yet able to move forward. In counseling we sometimes refer to this as being stuck and “spinning our wheels”. Spinning wheels are an indication of an unresolved issue. Certainly America has many unresolved issues. The last time we had such a divided country civil war resulted. I believe most Americans are trying desperately to avoid another such event. But how do we do that? What are the hidden issues, and how do we move beyond this moment in time?

Sometimes we need to look backward before we can move forward. That is what the children of Israel were required to do before they entered the Promised Land. Many times the prophets reminded the people of their identity as ...

February in Minnesota is winter; there’s no getting around it. Snow is on the ground. Ice houses are on the frozen lakes. The plows and salt trucks are out in full force. The nightly news features a ski report on all the local ski hills, not mountains (hey c’mon, this is Minnesota, not Colorado). When Elsie, the children, and I moved to Minnesota from northern California the good Minnesotans told us to “embrace the winter.” Our California friends told us we’d be dead in six months. They told us, “You’re not used to the cold. You’ve got thin blood like us. You’ll freeze to death!” So they outfitted us with electric dipsticks, woolen afghans, and all manner of winter apparel.

Now I&...

Last December, the week before Christmas, Elsie and I were remotely watching our grandson’s Christmas concert. On a sidebar chat I noticed a blurb by Aisha who was critical of the concert. I came to the defense of the concert and thus started an interesting chat room conversation. It turns out Aisha is a 14 year old young man who happens to be black. I’m a 75 year old who happens to be white. In the course of our back and forth, I mentioned that this concert was a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Aisha shot back that Jesus was black and he could prove it. I asked how he intended to do that since the Bible never mentions Jesus’ skin color. He declared that scholars have found black tribes of Jews in the holy land ...