Learning how to crawl? Check. Learning how to eat solid foods? Check. Learning he’ll always be presumed guilty until proven innocent because he’s a man? Double check. In the era of #MeToo, I’m about to write something controversial; something that many circles would deem outrageous on its face. But here goes: my son is being…
Like the sun rises in the east, and infants will always save their diaper blowouts until you’ve put them in their car seat, there’s just some things you can always count on. It’s like, well, clockwork. After the tragic shootings in Wisconsin and Maryland over the last few days, like clockwork the gun control narrative…
It’s starting to feel old. You know that feeling you get when you look back at old footage from some major event, and it almost doesn’t seem real because it looks so old? Maybe it’s in black and white; maybe the footage is grainy… maybe the news anchor’s got shoulder pads. Whatever the case—when it…
The door opened and a little light peered into the dark bedroom where my sister and I shared a bunk bed. My dad peeked in, “Hey girls—wanna go see something cool?” And off my brothers and sister and I went to the middle of nowhere to watch the Perseid meteor shower that rolls around every August.…
You know that sinking feeling you get when you realize you’re losing an argument? That “oh crap … I’ve either got to spin my way out of this or admit defeat or I’m going to look stupid …” feeling? I had that happen the other day, over Apple iPhone headphones of all things. Long story…
Once a few years back, I was hiking with my family in the Black Hills of South Dakota. When we finally made it to the top, I peered over the sheared off rock edge to catch a glimpse of the drop-off, and felt my center of gravity shift. I quickly moved back as I felt…
There’s a movie I grew up watching about an Irish man who immigrated to the US as a child with his mother—and when she died, he returned home to find and buy the house he born in. Sean Thorten (the “Yank,” as he’s called by the locals) clashes with Squire Will Danaher, who wants the…
Thousands of years ago, the Israelite people demanded a king. At that time, God ruled his people directly and used the prophet Samuel to communicate with them. When they decided they were tired of this arrangement, the Israelites called Samuel an old man with rebellious sons (how nice) and demanded that he be replaced with…
I remember once in college I had the opportunity to witness a human dissection. Two, actually; they were happening side by side. My friend—she was pre-med and the reason I got to watch this whole thing—was working on the male cadaver, and was in the process of exploring his left arm. I’ll never forget how…
In the fall of 2012, an elderly California man named Jay Leone found himself the victim of a home invasion. As he sat, ordered to stay still as the thief rifled through his things, the man remembered he had a gun in the bathroom. Leone convinced the thief—a drug addict felon named Samuel Cutrufelli—to let…
A Future Free 