Just Keep Swimming Alabama Category
Without a Country. Why isn’t this obvious?
Posted on January 16, 2021 Leave a Comment
In 1973, Cliff Robertson starred in an ABC Movie of the Week production of Edward Everett Hale’s story, “The Man Without a Country.” In it, an American officer is being court martialed for consorting with Aaron Burr. He wanted to make a point about the disunity of the new country and so blurted out, “Damn […]
Race, Religion, and the Lost Cause: Observation from the National ONA Gathering
Posted on June 19, 2019 Leave a Comment
Today is June 19th, Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when news of Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier finally reached enslaved persons in Texas. It coincides with the National Gathering of the UCC Open & Affirming National Gathering and a Race and Religion course assignment on whether the Lost Cause still exists […]
Alabama Gilead: The Beguiling of Conservative Women
Posted on June 3, 2019 1 Comment
for Jenny Nixon Last weekend, I attended the National Gathering of the Southeast Conference of the United Church of Christ, a denomination with a history of social justice advocacy that dates back to colonial New England. The UCC has always, to my knowledge, ordained women ministers, and it is a space where I feel welcome […]
Season of Lilacs: Memoir For My Mother
Posted on May 6, 2019 6 Comments
Down home, where they know you by name and treat you like family, Down home, where a man’s good word and a handshake are all you need. Folks know when you’re fallin’ on hard times you can fall back on Those of us raised up—down home. (Alabama, 1985) Prologue When my grandmother died, it was April, […]
Recovering from Fundamentalism, Part 1
Posted on January 12, 2014 Leave a Comment
One of my friends is, like me, a recovering fundamentalist Christian. She suggested that I might get to the root of my issues, whether about relationships, teaching, or writing–whatever–by forgiving myself. It took a recovering fundamentalist to recognize that and present it in that way. The closest I ever got thinking about forgiveness was when […]
Alabama the ("Your word here")
Posted on March 5, 2012 Leave a Comment
Since I decided that my next project would be a place study on my Country South by storying my great-grandmother Jeffreys’ life, I’ve been doing a lot of reading about Alabama, my state. One book, Dixie’s Forgotten People, by Alabama native and Auburn professor (I can forgive him for that) Wayne Flint, is what I […]
