An Arkies Musings

My An Arkie's Faith column from the August 31, 2022, issue of The Polk County Pulse. While attending grade school during the 1960s, I had two passions that consumed me. I loved baseball. I chewed lots of awful gum to collect baseball cards. As much as I loved baseball, space exploration intrigued me. My heroes were the astronauts in NASA's space program, and I read everything about them that I could get my hands on. In 1969 my interest in space was at a fever pitch. Everyone was talking about the race to land on the moon. The entire world was captivated when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Every newspaper covered the story. I soaked it all in. While I went through High School, I stayed interested in space, but there were many other things to interest me and take up my time. By now, there had been six moon landings and one near disaster. In just a few years, astronauts on the moon had gone from the most exciting and talked about thing on the planet to ho-hum, ...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the August 24, 2022, issue of The Polk County Pulse. It was our first full day in Berlin and we were at the Pergamon Museum. We were experiencing one of the well-known features of the museum, the Ishtar Gate from Babylon. It reaches thirty-eight feet from the floor to the ceiling, covered in shimmering, brightly glazed cobalt blue bricks. The finely carved animal reliefs shine with vibrant aqua blues, greens, and yellows. Daddy and I gazed up at the images of dragons, lions, and young bulls.  Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II built the Ishtar Gate around 575 BCE. The gate was the main entrance into the city of Babylon and was part of Nebuchadnezzar's plan to beautify his empire's capital. He placed an inscription on the gate that read, "I placed wild bulls and ferocious dragons in the gateways and thus adorned them with luxurious splendor so that people might gaze on them in wonder." Thousands of years later, his words ring true as ...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the August 17, 2022, issue of The Polk County Pulse. The teal envelope stood out from the white envelopes of the bills, credit card offers, and an "urgent notice" from a health insurance company. When we opened the envelope, there was a card with beautiful branches and green and teal leaves covering the top third. Below the leaves, the card proclaimed, "we do, again. Celebrating 50 years of marriage." My wife's sister from Oregon was renewing her vows and celebrating her fiftieth anniversary in a few weeks.  Just a few days before the teal envelope came in the mail, my wife and I had rented a VRBO and finalized plans for a long weekend trip to the beach in Gulfport, Mississippi. As my wife was reading the invitation, she said, "I wish we hadn't made plans to go to the beach; I would really like to go to Oregon for my sister's fiftieth." After we discussed the situation for a few minutes, I said, "I would...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the August 10, 2022, issue of The Polk County Pulse. The tour bus drove down the narrow cobblestone street and stopped in front of an old church. Bernd, our tour guide, told us that the church was St. Augustine's Church, and it was built over 700 years ago. In 1277 Augustinian Hermits started to build St. Augustine's Church and the monastery complex. He said, "we will be spending the weekend inside the historic walls and rooms in which monks, including Martin Luther, once lived and prayed."  Our tour had arranged for us to stay at the Augustinerkloster in Erfurt, Germany. It's a working Lutheran church and cloister that is used as a conference center and has 51 rooms for visitors. As I walked towards our room, I soaked in the history of the place and tried to imagine what it would have been like to live here as a monk over 500 years ago. After settling into the room, I headed out to explore the old town of Erfurt. The area has b...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the August 3, 2022, issue of The Polk County Pulse. I must confess that I have never been interested in pro wrestling. When I was growing up, my family didn't have a television in our home. In high school, many kids talked about a new TV program, WWWF Championship Wrestling. When they spoke of Bruno Sammartino, Chief Jay Strongbow, Killer Kowalski, and Andre The Giant, I had no idea what they were talking about.  As I got older and had a family of my own, I occasionally saw wrestling on tv. The flashy costumes, bragging, and posturing didn't entice me to continue watching. But I couldn't avoid it altogether, as wrestling became a part of American culture, and names such as Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper became well known even outside wrestling circles. With its popularity, many people began to ask questions. Is it a sport or a show? Is it real or fake? I heard many lively debates on the subject. As the years have passed and wrestling has beco...