Feature Columnists

One week ago this past Friday, my wife and I left a three-day conference in St. Louis' Central West End. As we were leaving the parking garage, our car pointing toward Southeast Missouri, we heard the news that a judge had found a white former St. Louis police officer not guilty in the shooting...

Today, I am placing myself in a setting told in one of the Gospel stories. I am in the marketplace. It is busy, crowded, colorful. There are people selling, yelling and interacting. I stand idle. I have nothing to add, nothing to engage me with these other people, no excuse to engage with them. ...

Happy birthday to Pauline Asmus, Paul Griffin, Shannon Hendrix, Danny Schlosser, Jeannie Rice, Tommy Burnett, Jason Rains, Russell Gardner, Renee Hitt, Della Phillips, Vanessa Enderle, Zachary Harris, June Lynn, Rhonda Emerson, Paul Hudson, Kaitlyn Herbst, Shannon Brown, BJ Nunnally, Micki Horrell,...

One of my favorite places to visit while at the SEMO District Fair is the conservation building at the northwest corner of the grounds. There are several aquariums in the building, and it is always fun to see what kinds of fish are on display. This year I found interesting buffalo fish in one of...

Happy birthday to Glenda Pobst, Bob Kielhofner, Dan Ballard, Gail Ballard, Linda Senciboy, John Hahn, Alvin Vandeven, Trevor Kirn, Joshua McIntosh, Jess Harrell, Betty Ulrich, Evelyn Sprenger, Glen Meyr, Jeremy Vandeven, Ken Lowery, JR Bennett, Albert Morris, Eliso Saucedo, Dillon Williams, David...

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2). The Scripture is a familiar one, but how many actually mediate on the scope of meaning contained within it? The wisdom of those words covers multitudinous answers to what you may be...

Everybody I know is busy. Parents frantically rush their kids back and forth from activity to activity. Even the retired guys I know say they are busier than they want to be. We live in this tremendous tension where our desires for a full life are completely overwhelmed by the activity of pursuing...

A white moth graced a brilliant marigold flower early one damp September morning as I walked the edge of my wife's flower garden. I photographed the moth as it set quietly with its very white wings folded across its back. In a gesture of "Thanks for the photo," I gently tapped the moth on its head...

Over the last four weeks, I only have had about one-tenth inch of rainfall at my home on the edge of Cape Girardeau. I just looked at the weather forecast for the next two weeks and it looks like we will see no precipitation during that time. The soil is sure getting dry in the Heartland...

Happy birthday to Jack Dragoni, Alex Davie, Judy Finley, Jamie Holder, Dustin Craig, Ely Kerber, Nancy Cutright, Floy Marvel, Cheryl Anders, Doris White, Lacey Rister, Misty Hibdon, Mildred Moudy, Stephen Shrum, Lindsay Cook, Greg Glastetter, Delores Turner, Sue Tyler, Jeanette Beck, Olivia Coomer,...

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether what I'm doing is making a difference. I've been thinking about this specifically with teaching teenagers in a high-school classroom. While some days, it's incredibly rewarding, other days, I wonder whether what we're doing is even important at all, whether any...

Sept. 11 is tomorrow, and some may see it as just another Monday. Some who live in this part of the country also may think of it as Day Three of the SEMO District Fair, featuring the Heartland Idol competition. Despite the passage of years, many also know it as Patriot Day, an indelible red-letter...

The beautiful monarch butterfly has black legs and a black body peppered with white dots. Its wings are orange with strategic black lines. The black lines at the outer edges of the butterfly's four wings are sprinkled with more white dots. Milkweed plants are vital for the monarch butterfly while...

Happy birthday to Josh Butcher, Shirley Sullinger, Alvie Surface, Ron Moyers, Todd Wessel, Dale Williams, David Herbst, Warren Masterson, Ashley Kitchens, Raymond Spies, Daryl Ross, Alice Swain, Jimmy Hargrove, Blake Dannenmueller, Charlotte Foulk, Alice Walker, Clara Westrich, Kevin Goetz, Barbara...

People have trouble listening to Jesus. "What do I look for? How do I know if I'm genuinely following the will of God for my life? How do I hear God when he speaks?" Those are all questions people ask. You needn't feel badly, though, because even Peter had trouble listening to Jesus...

In the past week, we as a nation have seen the worst of nature and the best of humanity. Many have felt a sense of disbelief as water and wind pounded the streets of Houston, Texas. Newscasts of homes buried under water, precious belongings gone, and daring rescues all build a gnawing sense of...

Paint for a Cause is an idea I developed a few years ago that gives participants a chance to donate a dollar to a charitable cause for the opportunity to paint on a chosen image. Artist Barb Bailey and I will be in the Arena Building at the SEMO District Fair each day Sept. 9 to 16...

Happy birthday to Harlan Sadler, Joann Rister, Ginger Dees, Shannon Hampton, Sabrina Pobst, Brandon Davis, Sandy Lee, Debbie Devenport, Madelyn Kiefer, Jenifer Brown, Jacob Smith, Gary Proffer, Robert Creed, Betty Haley, Mark Heisserer, Robert Russell, Matt Peters, Joan Hooker, Fran Wolfe, David...

A former colleague of mine brought a Ku Klux Klan robe to a meeting years ago. It wasn't his but had belonged to an ancestor. The speaker was attempting to illustrate the roots of racism and due to the choices made by extended family, unwittingly those choices touch our lives. ...

This semester I'm student teaching at a school that is a bit of a commute away each day. While on my drive, I recently listened to Coldplay's album "A Head Full of Dreams" in full for the first time. I've hardly stopped listening to it since and am amazed by it, grateful for it and glad it is new...

Wild animals in the garden are not always welcome. Raccoons can decimate a sweetcorn patch. Whitetail deer will browse the tender new growth on many kinds of plants. A groundhog can eat your green bean plants off right to the ground. Squirrels will find plenty of things to eat in your garden as...

Happy birthday to Tim Steimle, Billie Davis, Shirley Diggs, Linda Johnson, Elizabeth Charleston, Dale Wiseman, Mildred Elridge, Gladys Chambers, Anna Felty, Ann Glueck, Shirley Rodgers, Mandy Stone, Janeen Cunningham, Dennis Cook, Mona Harrell, Becky Powell, Beverly Lair, Donna Daugherty, Jeremy...

"Have mercy on me God, in your goodness, in your abundant compassion" (Psalm 51:3). When you read Psalm 51:3, it may sound like an outdated, distantly written scripture. Sometimes when you study the Bible, you examine it like history, a reference book or a guidebook for life...

Monday is the solar eclipse. Living right on the edge of totality, I am excited about this. For the past eight months or more, my local tourism office and news media have built up this once-in-a-lifetime event. I can purchase glasses to safely view the eclipse when I buy a gallon of milk at the...

This close-up look at a sunflower shows it to be more intricate than we might think. The long, bright-yellow petals that surround the seed head as the sunflower blooms are obvious. But did you know when the seeds are forming, each seed has its own tiny flower?...

Due to the extremes in weather we have experienced this year, several gardeners have seen an increase in grassy-type weeds in their flower beds and vegetable gardens. In many cases, these gardeners have tried to find a herbicide to use without hurting their flowers or vegetables. They are tired of...

Last Sunday, I sat watching a small field of drought-stricken black oil sunflowers. Many of the sunflower stalks were dying from lack of rain but had managed to make small heads of seed. The field was alive with American goldfinches. Cardinals and house finches also were feeding on the sunflower...

My friend Father Bill loved sunflowers. Behind his desk, he kept a painting of a field of sunflowers that a student had made for him, and he would tell the other students and me, "Be like a sunflower -- always keep your face turned toward the sun." A few weeks ago we planted sunflowers at the...

In just over a week, on Monday, Aug. 21, at 1:20 p.m. CDT, an eclipse will occur in Southeast Missouri. We are directly in the path of this celestial event, which is confined to 14 U.S. states, including the Show-Me State. The eclipse will cut a diagonal path through America's midsection, and the...

Happy birthday to Jennifer Nolen, Steve Seyer, Taylor Laxton, Austin Carroll, Kent Duniphan, Jerry W. Evans, Ethan Thomason, Casey McAlister, Hunter Ourth, Ashley Pepple, Steven Wessel, Leslie Bridwell, Paula Chapman, Denise Haislip, Pat Mungle, Chris Hanback, Kenny Ruiz, Joann Schott, Rocky...

Happy birthday to Jackie Fowler, Ruben Hitt, Stephanie Bennett, Keith Hamn, Jessie Lee Evans, Shirley Foulk, Chris Mayberry, Shirley Owens, Stephen Buck, Joey Burton, Ryan Greer, Deloris Newman, Leyton Hanback, Marilyn Benton, Koby Pobst, Amanda Cannon, Pam Coomer, Andrew Horrell, Jared Walker,...

Her name was Reba. I met her in a restaurant as I settled in a private place inside the establishment. I usually choose comfortable padded chairs if they're available. As I eased into the soft, inviting seat, I smiled to the woman sitting at a table beside my chair. Reba was alone and quite...

Every August, parents of school-aged children find themselves in the center of a dilemma. They are forced to wake the once cute and cuddly bears from their summer hibernation to the routine of early breakfasts, backpacks and school buses. Summer is gone and the school bells are ringing again...

This bizarre-looking insect is an antlion. Shown here is what it looks like in its larvae stage. As an adult, it has wings and looks somewhat like an insect called a lacewing. An antlion larvae digs a funnel-like trap in dry dust or fine sand. It builds its trap by moving backward in a circular...

Happy birthday to Darlene Crocker, Anita Montgomery, Vannaise Hitt, Jeremy Townsend, Carl Estes, Dorothy Black, Billie Jo Sadler, Fimble Enderle, Debbie Totty, Jonathan Dooley, Katie Hampton, Adam Swinford, Breanna Davis, Bob Burnett, Shelby Ancell, Kari Stone, Adam Uhrhahn, Tom Burnett, Rocky...

The storage on my phone has been full for a while and I've been ignoring it, trying to cram every last screenshot, email and text message onto it as is humanly possible. Thus, while my family and I were recently on vacation in the mountains, I thought I could outsmart my phone's storage space by...

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," (Proverbs 9:10a). There is more to the epigram above, so what you read there is a bit out of context. Still, there is enough in the first 10 words of that verse to dig in for some real-world life application...

Usually we think of dragonflies as those that are about 3 inches long and sporting dominant colors of blue, green, white or brown. But there is a much smaller, orange-colored one that is easy to overlook or mistake for some other kind of insect. The little dragonfly I show here is an eastern...

Happy birthday to Don Vance, Samantha Glastetter, Diane Keller, Dorothy Black, Don Ward, Jake Hitt, Andrew Hendrix, Gail Walter, Tamra Leslie, Brandon Davis, Iris Crowe, Jim Whistler, Bruce Jansen, Cara Duncan, Michelle Asfour, Stevie Shrum, Versie Canady, Larry Horrell, Don Leggett, Pat Friga,...

Your evaluation of your life is your own. No one determines your perspective on what happens, except you. I write often about life, attitude, misfortune and how to best derive joy when it's all over. To begin with, know that life is messy. Almost everything begins with ugliness that ultimately...

The tobacco hornworm is often found eating on tomato plants in Southeast Missouri gardens. Too often it is discovered after much damage has been done to the tomatoes. The tobacco hornworm has a green body with seven white lines accompanied by black slash marks on its sides. It has an orange-red...

Fear is powerful. Fear can paralyze and push. Fear can blind us to the resources we already have and possibilities before us. That spirit of fear is what Joshua, the successor to Moses, needed to face down in the people he led. In the book of Joshua (Chapter 17) lands are being divided among the...

The insect here is called a katydid. It gets its name from the sound it makes when it rubs its wings together, singing out a loud "Katy did, Katy didn't" melody. There are many species of katydids throughout the southern U.S. Most are green. They vary in length from about 1 inch to about 5 inches....

Over the last few weeks I have seen sample after sample of plant issues from vegetable gardens. These range from disease infections, insect infestations and poor growth, due to excess moisture from all of the rainfall this spring. In many cases the gardeners are so disgusted they have said "enough...

I love to hike, especially in the mountains. My family and I recently traveled to the Tetons, and this range has me thinking about all of the things mountains are in Scripture: places of worship, sacrifice, transfiguration, reconciliation, promises kept and revelation...

In the last scene of the iconic television series "The West Wing," as President Jed Bartlet is flying back to his native New Hampshire after completing two tumultuous terms in office, his wife asks him a question. "What are you thinking about?" His answer: "Tomorrow."...

Happy birthday to Matt Abernathy, Jordan Smith, Connor Pobst, Martha Eftink, Ruby Eichhorn, William Finney, Tom Smith, Pat Glenzy, Kari Bickings, Sonny McCabe, Pat Barberis, Wendy Gadberry, Delores Shell, Mary Adams, Robert Hinkebein, Becky Seyer, Catherine Elfrink, Mary Ann Kagle, Mandy Moore,...

Happy birthday to Bobby Burks, Jeremy Chapman, Chris Robinson, Mark Robinson, Leonard Kluesner, David Lape III, Gary Kluesner, Claude Marion, Eric Cobb, Jack Coomer, Donna Fisher, Jordan Cook, Joann Tatum, Seger Ruiz, Fabian Schott, Gary Bentley, Lloyd McMullin, Joe Mohorc, Joann Schmitt, Scott...

I took this photo a few weeks ago. This is a native wildflower called plains coreopsis. It is an annual plant that produces abundant seed and requires little to no care in a native wildflower garden. Once it becomes established, it usually will reseed itself from year to year...

Janie had some relatives with whom she failed to connect. Many were older and seemingly somewhat uneducated. She felt they had little to offer in the way of genuine knowledge, much as youth think about their parents when they're teenagers. Nevertheless, she visited them, loved them and respected...