Each year on the third Monday of January, our nation observes Martin Luther King Jr. Day to learn about and reflect on the life and legacy of Dr. King. This year’s observance takes on extra special meaning as our district hosts Prior Lake Rotary’s first annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Brea…
As we reflect on the end of 2021, it was a new normal with many accomplishments.
Nothing in nature ever stays the same. It is a mantra that I find myself telling people more and more. We expect nature to always be the same.
After all the talk about supply chain issues and the news stories showing shipping containers backed up in the Port of Los Angeles, I was surprised to keep receiving Christmas catalogues late into December.
It’s the day following Christmas as I write. While the holiday decorations will remain for a while longer, the kitchen has been swept clean and the boxes and wrappings taken out to the bins in the garage. Within me is a low, hollow feeling, the mood I experience now the day following one spe…
Savage Pacer columnist Sheriff Ahmed recently wrote about the importance of kindness in his Nov. 20 column. This article is about how hard it can be to be kind.
When I was growing up my mother told me to observe nature, because most of what you need to know and learn you can see it in nature. She also told me that human beings and our natural world are both God’s creation, so if you look after both of these, you are indeed serving God.
Winter can be a challenging time for wildlife, especially when deep snow blankets the land and the wind blows bitterly cold. Birds fluff up their feathers and search high and low for anything to eat. Squirrels are extra plump and fuzzy and dig down through the snow in hopes of finding a forg…
From a distance, world religions appear monolithic. We speak of the Jewish faith, but closer scrutiny reveals numerous Jewish sects — orthodox, conservative, reform and more. Fundamental religious commonalities identify these sects as Jewish, yet their adherents deviate in belief and practice.
Like other health systems in Minnesota and around the country, St. Francis Regional Medical Center is being strained beyond its limits on a daily basis trying to meet the existing health care needs of the community.
What should a church do when well-loved art causes new pain? In the last few years, personal accusations against popular church musicians, authors, media creators and artists have rocked faith communities around the country. Public allegations of sexual, emotional, and physical abuse brought…
Have you ever watched Rick Steves on PBS? Rick Steves gets my wife, Deb, and I excited about our next trip every time we watch his show. Mr. Steves also has a website with abundant travel information online. Deb and I love to travel as a gift to ourselves, but I never totally realized the be…
My professional purpose has always been to provide life chances for all students. As Superintendent of Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools this means I am committed to ensuring all students have what they need to be successful; each student feels a sense of belonging and all students and staff ar…
“May I have four meals?” a young boy asked me as our church volunteers were finalizing the preparations for the to-go meals at Loaves & Fishes in Shakopee last month. With Thanksgiving on the horizon at the time, I knew I’d be thinking about that young man and his family. Did they have e…
Just when it was beginning to look like the pandemic was over and we could see the light at the end of the tunnel; that light began to dim with the variants of COVID increasing the number of cases and we realized it was not over.
How’s your personal economy going? Are you employed? Do you have more money in the bank than last year at this time? Have you started your holiday shopping? If you answered yes to these questions, you are part of the economic recovery that we are seeing across the country. And it’s no accide…
I recently returned home after a long weekend excursion out of town. It was one of those trips with a stress-inducing flight cancellation on the way out of town that in retrospect turned out to be nothing more than a minor inconvenience but was unsettling in the moment. For me, there is some…
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, (for those too young for this reference, it refers to vinyl records that would skip and repeat the same thing over and over again and were considered broken) I love unique or unusual critters.
The Sunday before Thanksgiving I’d already fallen into the holiday abyss. I woke up worried about how many pies to bake. Normally, that could be a legitimate concern, but there were going to be only four of us for Thanksgiving this year. Why did I feel obligated to make, never purchase, a pu…
Each year the week before Thanksgiving is American Education Week. It is a fitting time to pause, reflect and give thanks for the many people throughout our community who play important roles to ensure our students receive the best education possible.
The holidays are a time for family, community and friendship bonding. However, we need to further this and think beyond the comfort of our close circles. We need to start noticing the circumstances of our community, by thinking beyond our needs and start thinking about others. This is a toug…
On a cold, windy, rainy night in early September, 1977, my very late flight landed in Fargo, North Dakota. After 32 hours of travel, I was tired, nervous, excited and apprehensive. When I didn’t see anyone from my college waiting for me at the arrival hall, I asked the person at the car rent…
Yet another white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) mating season is behind us now. This year I spent a truckload of time in the woods following several large bucks who were actively searching for mates. I was able to capture a pile of images of the most interesting mating behavior.
“Your call will be answered in the order in which it was received.” I lost track of how many times I heard the voice repeat that phrase as I waited on the phone to schedule a doctor’s appointment. After about five minutes, I memorized the recording, including its encouragement to use the web…
For anyone in the journey of faith, working on letting go of themselves and their own control to find more of God, is work that needs to be practiced again and again and again. Being good at something really means we’re well practiced at it.
According to a West Health/Gallup survey from July, nearly all Democrats (97%) and the majority of Republicans (61%) support empowering the federal government to negotiate lower prices of brand-name prescription drugs covered by Medicare.
I am always drawn to unique animals. You know, the kind of critters that are different from all others such as the Virginia opossum, which is the only marsupial in America. Or the osprey, a fish-eating raptor that is the only raptor to dive feet first into the water, often completely submerg…
On a summer getaway to the North Shore, my wife and I followed a long day of hiking and exploration with a trip to a sizeable town, by northern Minnesota standards.
I’d like to share the opening lyrics of the song “John Ed Hammet” by Peter and Lou Berryman. The song follows John Ed Hammet through one misfortune after another that fails to dampen his spirit for life. His attitude of gratitude persists under various difficult circumstances.
Recently, we decided to remodel our bathroom. Our cheap, plastic shower stall was yellowing and cracking, while our bathtub looked like it was never used because, well, it was hardly ever used. That tub was a waste of space, so it was time to redesign a bathroom that worked for aging adults …
It’s hard to beat this time of year. The cool days, the colorful trees and pumpkins. Ya, that’s right, pumpkins. I find pumpkins fascinating. Especially the history of pumpkins. You might agree after reading about this amazing vine.
In the geopolitical arena, some nations fan the winds of nationalism and embrace a “me first” strategy. While this garners the populist votes, this does not work unless nations pragmatically interact with other people and nations. The reason is simple: we have only one world, and we are all …
As I meet with stakeholders throughout our community, one little-known fact many are not aware of is that public schools must undergo annual audits conducted by independent accounting firms. Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools is no different, and last Monday the school board received a detailed …
I often see social media posts from friends that say we could solve many of the world’s problems if we just did away with the media. Whoa there!
Summer nearly ended and then we had a surprise. Stories always were told that when a big storm comes from the west towards Savage, it comes to the river and veers north. Well, maybe not.
A seasoned worshiper asked as she was leaving worship, “Pastor, do you think the church is going to get back to normal?” The pastor asked for clarification, “What do you mean by normal?” After the slightest of delays came her wishful reply, “Our sanctuary filled with people.”
When it comes to confusing common names for animals, I think the American elk has got to be near the top of the confusing list. This came to light last week when I was in northern Montana to film and photograph elk. I ran into a guy from Europe who was also looking to capture images of elk, …
I have acted as a voter protection lawyer during many elections. Minnesota has very fair voting laws, which allow Minnesota residents to vote if they follow reasonable voting rules. Minnesota laws are reasonable, but also protect the integrity of the voting system. According to a federal cou…
On Sept. 11, 2001, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks traumatized, and also galvanized, our nation. As we stand 20 years removed from the horrors of that day, the perspective afforded by time is sobering.
I saw a great political advertisement last week from Curtis Johnson, who is running for school board in Roseville. Mr. Johnson stands in front of famous time travel machines from the movies (TARDIS from “Dr. Who” and the DeLorean with flux capacitor from “Back to the Future”) and suggests th…
As if 2020 wasn’t enough, 2021 has left a walloping punch. With the pandemic still on the rise, the conflict in Afghanistan and climate change increasingly becoming greater issues, philanthropic efforts are needed now more than ever.
Standing in a small clearing, deep in the northwoods of Minnesota, I was telling the participants in my black bear photo workshop some of the more interesting natural history facts about the American black bear.
Watching the news of Hurricane Ida, I was stunned by how it caused flooding in the northeast. Ida made land in Louisiana. Those images were devastating, but hurricanes in the Gulf are somewhat expected.
In my sophomore college year, the classroom discussion one day was our individual priorities. The professor mentioned that if you want to know someone, just watch what they do with their time and money, and that will show you who they really are, what drives them and what their priorities ar…
Perhaps it’s never been possible to have agreement on the definition of a faith tradition; ideas about what it means to follow a religion have always been fluid and contentious.
We really don’t think too much about metaphors. An intriguing or powerful metaphor might grab hold of us out of a song lyric or a meme but for the most part we don’t talk much about metaphors. If we brush the dust off our middle school English class brain, we might remember a metaphor as a t…
By the time you read this column, our students will have been back in school for only a few days. Words cannot fully capture how excited we are to have them back!
Being a community leader has never been easy, and couple that with the difficult decisions being made regarding public health issues related to the pandemic, boards and councils have found their decisions at the forefront of today’s news.
Every now and then I get an opportunity to work with a species that I don’t have much hands-on experience with. These are often rare or endangered species or a species that is difficult to access and lives in areas that makes it hard to get close to.
On the way to taking my son to college out of state, we went through the drive-thru for a paper bag supper. It was a quick stop and we were back on the interstate in no time at all.
