The Hammer Times

  • Designed by the Divine for Delight

    Sometimes when I look at a cherry tree, with its crazy abundance, I imagine God creating beauty in a ridiculously well-supplied workshop, humming “Love Divine“ absentmindedly while working. “Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heav’n to earth come down…. dee, dee, dee-da-dee….” The creation credo posted on the workshop wall could only have been: Read more

  • Ziggy’s Corner: Activated by Affection

    Ziggy’s border collie genetics mean she dozes most of the day within a few feet of me. (I’m easy to keep track of, doing a desk job in a small apartment.) She seems content on her double-stacked bed and will lie there all day, waiting. When friends visit or when I get on the floor Read more

  • Loss

    I’m in a low energy chapter. My oil pan of liveliness is leaking badly, leaving drip marks of sighs beneath me. The sighs are exhales of sorrow. Four friends, each of whom I’d known for decades, have died since Christmas: Pat, Rosemary, Michelle and Gary. ONE: One look at Pat’s smile and twinkling eyes and Read more

  • Here’s a Thought: Don’t Wear Colors You Haven’t Earned

    I think we should stop asking professional teams to play dress up – – to don a hat or special jersey in support of a cause. Athletes and coaches should wear the uniform they’ve earned, not ones they haven’t. In November, the month in which Veterans’ Day falls, the NFL swaddles its teams in camouflage Read more

  • Trying on History with Eleanor Roosevelt

    Trying on History with Eleanor Roosevelt Invitation for reflection: Which of the quotes above speaks to you? Copy it someplace that you will see it every day. Does anything change after reading it daily for a week? Read more

  • Trying on History: The Clothes of Liberty

    The New Colossus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,With conquering limbs astride from land to land;Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall standA mighty woman with a torch, whose flameIs the imprisoned lightning, and her nameMother of Exiles. From her beacon-handGlows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes commandThe air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. Read more

  • Michelle Lori Clay (9/16/58 – 3/10/23)

    Michelle and I were together for ten years. We met online and our first half dozen dates were lunch dates. We worked only four blocks from each other, but lived a ferry ride away. (She forgot her reading glasses when we met for our first lunch, so I read the menu to her.) The relationship Read more

  • Snakes, Bars and Lesbians

    I’m reading a novel which reminded me of an earlier chapter in my life. Well, not exactly a chapter, more like a weird page. In 2000 I was was traveling to Huntington, WV with a training team from Amazon to open a new customer service call center. I was just starting to come out. Two Read more

  • Ziggy’s Corner

    Ziggy saw a labradoodle wearing a Carhartt vest coming out of Whole Foods this afternoon. I didn’t catch all she said, but it sounded like, “Look at that jumped up poodle. She wouldn’t know a pairs of pliers if they pinched her on the backside! I think Ziggy was feeling her working dog roots. 😎 Read more

  • Personal Pronouns

    In urban, progressive areas, and in the media and institutions which identify as urban-progressive, gender is a regular topic. I find some of the discussion enlightening and a lot of it confusing. I’ve tried to solve my confusion by finding fault with the messengers —a time-honored tradition when feeling like one is, but ought not Read more