COURAGE, THE BEST “EN”—PUT Hearts wither, almost from the onset. I’ve always liked to think of them as innately strong and resilient. If nurtured properly, if vested in right thinking and conviction, IF rooted in the soil of faith-based enablement, then yes. They are strong. But, left to the devices of human nature and gravity, hearts are prone to the weakest and easiest course—doubt, fear and hesitation. This is not to say that I am cynical about people. I believe in the valiant and irrepressible courage of the human heart. I love a line from that beautiful WWII novel, Rose… 

I am a bible-studying, praying Christian of many years. I have an inexplicable assurance that God is real as is the Son He sent and the Spirit He gifts to every human who professes Him and believes. What I feel and know about God is the very definition of faith. I have been a student of science even longer than the bible because my father was a science teacher and, by the time I was four, he had this little girl perched on a stool to dissect a mushroom, recite dinosaur species and identify stratification in cutaway rocks on the… 

Tonight I went to the last event I will ever attend (at least within the scope of imagination) that will end in the Bulldog fight song. I stood in the oppressive heat of a high school auditorium whose air conditioner has never been adequate and invited a headache by fighting tears. I don’t know why I fought them.  Before I started, I knew they would win. It was not my alma mater or my song. I did not even have a blood-related child on the stage, but it is my youngest son’s senior year. I have watched him and his…