All Posts By

James Schaap

Blog

Dr. Sue

Susan La Flesche Picotte simply could not have dreamed of a hospital as a child. She wouldn’t have known what a hospital was. Her father was a

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Blog

Nostalgia or principle?

I’m quite sure I didn’t leave them an option. I sent them off on a Saturday afternoon for a performance of Purpaleanie, a stage play put

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Blog

Highs and lows

I don’t want to be disagreeable. I may be feeling this way, as if I’m on track toward irascibility, given that I just passed a

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Blog

Prayer for a Blessing

It was never an easy thing to do. . .heroic?—yes, but never particularly easy. Even though they had no idea where it was they were

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Blog

Not long ago. Not far away.

The copy on most of the exhibits was written in Dutch, so we missed out on a lot. I didn’t complain–then or now, thirty years

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Blog

Tearful Trails

For some time now, I’ve admired the life of a 19th century missionary, Sheldon Jackson, whose name I found on a monument up top of

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Blog

Emma Coger made a scene

“Let’s have a conversation,” or so my neighbor Brian Keepers suggested wisely on Monday. “Do you see patience as a virtue or a privilege?” It’s

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Blog

Elegy

We watched him shave–at least I did. I mean, I didn’t stand there gawking like some silly ten-year-old idiot, but when he was up beside

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