An Essay on Doubt  I tossed and turned in my bed, trying desperately to sleep. Questions chased themselves around my head. I tried to push them out, but they kept coming back—questions about God and His character, questions about religion and personal faith. Questions for which I had no

Five funerals in eighteen months. Two babies, a toddler, a teenager, and a 60-year-old father of nine. The sadness, the hugs, the commiseration, and recognition of a common mortal lot feels starkly familiar. The endless loop of unfair suffering and separation is spinning up. We stand and sit in sad

This essay was first printed in Kline's book Scratching the Woodchuck. It has been said that community is like an old coat—you aren't aware of it until it is taken away. I became aware of what community is when I was drafted during the Vietnam

Sandhill cranes, long legged and musical, pitching into the estuarine mud flats with stilted legs outstretched. A flock of several hundred White-fronted geese, these with a watery cackle, circle once and join the cranes. The sky is alive with birds: Lesser Canada geese, Pintails and Mallards, a wigeon, some Northern

Every culture has its taboos. Muslims can’t drink alcohol; Jews can’t eat pork; Mormons can’t drink coffee, tea, or anything with caffeine. Some taboos are explicit, perhaps written in a holy document, while others are unwritten or unspoken. They become an unseen but powerful undercurrent in a

My wife has birthed me two daughters, one of which runs wild and half-clothed up trees and on roofs, eating radishes yanked from the earth, panting and swimming and chewing sticks and grass stems. The other will be found with adorable pink things, or bent over paper, drawing, folding, or

The happiest man is he who loves his enemies and enjoys his work. -Unknown These are heady times in which it seems anyone who can think and labor simultaneously can stay financially solvent, and by all appearances, even the thinking part is negotiable. Like other modern marvels, it’s easy