BinghamBooks

Periodically I will identify a theme or thread that has been running through my life without my having recognized it.

One of the first I came to see was the importance of dreams. What are they? Where do they come from? What is their significance? I have spent a good deal of my adult (more…)

Today, December 26th, is Boxing Day. It is a time in England and its colonies when homeowners give boxes of gifts to their servants and public employees (mailperson, etc.). When I was young and in seminary, I too worked as a civil servant. I was an intern for Senator Phil Hart of Michigan. This was a training program sponsored by (more…)

One of the things that I am thankful for this year is that winter and depression are alike. That’s right. Please read on.

Winter is a time when nature appears dead. Trees have lost their leaves, the grass is no longer green, and rivers freeze and appear to lose their flow. Depression can (more…)

It takes an ambitious ego to see oneself as President of the United States. It requires an ego that is eager for power, one that wants to make things happen in a grand manner. The sweet taste of success on a lower level intoxicates the ego and instills a yearning for more power.

To (more…)

As Christmas approaches, I want to offer you a different slant on the idea of incarnation.

Incarnation is a central concept in Christian theology. It affirms that the eternal Son of God took human flesh from his mother and the historical Christ is at once fully God and fully man without the integrity or (more…)

Sometimes observations offered by different people at different times converge. This happened to me this morning well before dawn.

The first observation came to me years ago, perhaps more than a decade, from C.G. Jung. He wrote: “Where love reigns, there is no will to power; and where the will to power is (more…)

My new buddy, Olav Hauge, wrote a poem, “You Want Only to Be,”* that captured a moment in time for me. Here is his poem.
No root groping
in the hard rock,
no sprout, no sapling,
not the strong bole in the storm,
no humble branch,
no bast, no bark
in frost and snow –
(more…)

I am finding myself with a strong mix of feelings. My 66th birthday is less than a month away. I feel well, yet am aware of my body’s decline.

I am reading more poetry recently and an image from Tomas Tranströmer’s Ringing captures what I’ve been feeling. He (more…)

For reasons that had entirely to do with curiosity and intuition, I purchased a copy of Olav Hauge’s Selected Poems. Born in 1908, a Norwegian like many of my ancestors, Hauge made his living off the apples he grew on his acre orchard. He also writes – oh, can he write! – and translates (more…)

Recently in professional training seminars I’ve been exposed to conversations about the brain of teenagers. The most significant finding from longitudinal studies involving MRI’s indicates that a teen’s brain is not fully developed. This finding helps to account for some typical teenage behavior.

In the fully developed brain of an adult, (more…)