Teens and Texting: They’ve Grown up Just Like Me

Many Oklahomans have their gripes about the most prevalent teen habit right now—texting. Kids sit staring at their cell phones, punching buttons, and managing to convince us all that by the time they’re 25, they will be a gold mine for the carpel-tunnel-surgery-industrial complex. In Our Day It Was Phones The basics are not new. Texting is a way to say to everyone around, “You are not as important as the person receiving my text message.” For those of us who grew up in the pre-cell-phone world, there was the telephone. We could attept to ignore parents who wanted us to do ...

Pottersland: Where We Are Now

Move over, George Bailey. We’re all in Pottersland now. In the classic movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) received a wonderful gift. He got the chance to see his beloved community of Bedford Falls, as it would have been if he had never lived. It turned out that George and George alone had saved the charming community from a dreadful fate—the fate of being re-made into Pottersville—a terrible and cruel place fashioned after the designs of the evil (and very wealthy) Mr. Potter. Of course, in real life, no one person could have saved Bedford Falls, and the movie ...

OK, I Know What Jesus Would Drive

A few years ago, some well-meaning people started a sort of a campaign to ask the question, “What would Jesus drive?” Their aim was to nudge Americans to think about their transportation choices, since our country burns so much fossil fuel in the process of getting from here to there. Would Jesus drive a Hummer? A BMW? A Volkswagen? I have always maintained Jesus would ride the bus. Bus Riding Memories A friend mentioned Jesus and hybrid cars just a few days ago, and that made me remember some of my bus rides here in Oklahoma City. Most people tell me they ...