The Stipulation_The Man Across the Street_Following her own instructions_Hey, Murphy, Wanna Play?
Catalog Guide:
The Stipulation
The Anderson gene pool is extensive. Just about everyone knows at least one Anderson of some variation, so it is pretty safe to say that I probably have multitudes of cousins I have never met from nearly every continent. It shouldn’t have been too surprising to me that I should receive a call that my cousin Helen had passed away suddenly, and that I was expected to fly to Illinois and attend her funeral. The surprise was that I had never heard of a Cousin Helen before, and she had apparently left me something in her will. Now, from what I was able to figure out from good old Ancestry, Cousin H...
The Man Across the Street
"Why does that man look sad?" I've been asking that question to my friends and family since the man moved to the neighborhood when I was 12、 The answer for the question was always the same: "Some people are just sad, Amy." However, no matter how many times I was told that, the answer wasn't enough for me, so I kept asking. I would sit on the book-nook, and peer out the window, trying to catch a glimpse of our neighbor as he walked down the side-walk. The only thing I knew about him was that his name was Mr. Parker. No one else knew much about him. "Mr. Parker is a man of secrets," my friend, O...
Following her own instructions
She’s pretty, always has been, but never seen as breathtaking. She’s athletic, a Varsity level teammate even, but her name has never been found in the starting lineup. And she has always been good, but not great, certainly never the best. She has blended within every crowd and every room she has stood in, and she knows this has partly been her fault. Because she has followed the crowds, and matched the people around her. She has followed every instruction and never broken a rule, for fear of finally becoming the girl who is noticed, for fear of the pressure of that starting lineup position, f...
Hey, Murphy, Wanna Play?
My 7-year-old son, Isaac, wanted to wear the shirt every day. The royal blue color had long since faded to a less vibrant hue. The neck was stretched to almost double its original size. The white letters, framed in bright red, had worn cracks running through them along with its famous number 3, an homage to Dale Murphy, the 1980s Atlanta Braves fan favorite. A hand-me-down piece, it was his first choice on most days including this one. We rode away from serving dinner at the church, trying to kill time.“Let’s go to the dinosaur pawww.onedoor.ccrk!” Isaac, and his sisters, exclaimed. I, the one quick to say ...