Crisscross Applesauce
Crisscross applesauce. A three year old said this Sunday morning as I invited the children to sit on the floor and join me for a story during the sermon time. "Crisscross applesauce means story time at my school" she said. Stories, people I know and don't know are writing and sharing stories. Some are political, or religious, cultural, social, emotional, true and -some not so true. Over the summer and early fall I read a lot of the stories. Links posted on Facebook from Huffpost or blogs, the NY Times or other sources made it easy to read them. Some of the stories were poignant and heartfelt. Some were angry. Some made me angry. Some offered facts - true or at least true-sounding. Many of the stories fueled in me a deep concern for this country. More often than not the stories diminished my sense of hope. I am by nature hopeful, an optimist, so it is distressing to me to experience a loss of hope. I lived for about 8 years in a suburb that had no sidewalks. People...