Middle school was a crisis time for me. Bespeckled with Coke-bottle frames and sporting braces and a bowl-haircut, I was the poster-child for the socially awkward. What I longed for as a shy, self-conscious seventh grader was the proverbial “friend who sticks closer than a brother”—an encourager and advocate, someone who could speak comfort and counsel to my preteen circumstances … Read More
Reading the “Antique” Testament for all its worth
A staple of public broadcasting is the popular series, Antiques Roadshow. The basic premise for this most-watched PBS program is that people bring discarded, forgotten “antiques” for an expert to appraise. Some of these antiques are deemed to be rubbish. But more often than not the appraiser will tell the somewhat shocked and overjoyed owners that what they perceived to … Read More