Anchor Leg

Cool, collected, calm, robotic, never showing emotion—the perfect Christian, right?  WRONG. In Christian culture (or perhaps just human nature), we have embedded the notion that it is not okay to feel any emotion for the sake of not being controlled by them or being weak. And instead of processing our emotions with God, and letting Him speak truth into our lives, we become fake people.  Through the name and abuse of “faith,” we wear a plastered smile that covers a crumbling interior. It’s a facade that says, “everything is okay.” For me, my fake-self was birthed on a cold January morning in 2001. Whether it was cold temperature-wise, I have no idea. But the events of that day left an icy sting I still feel today. I remember sitting on the couch, watching TV as my mom was on the phone in her room. I wasn’t really paying attention to her, but overheard, “I don’t know how to tell him.” I thought nothing of it. Coming out of her room, my mom, with red a...

It’s the day after Halloween. In the dark alley of a city street, a pilgrim and [pilgrimess?] sit in a corner. People walk by, holding a peppermint mocha, jingling bells, and wearing cross-stitched sweaters with snowflakes on the them. The pilgrims, unnoticed by the rest of civilization, silently weep, alone and forgotten. BUT NOT THIS YEAR. This year, my friends, shall be the year we REMEMBER THE PILGRIMS. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas. The day after Thanksgiving, I get out all my Christmas stuff and light up my house like a Griswold. But, I also love each holiday during its season. October is Halloween, December is Christmas and November is Thanksgiving. Well, at least that is how it used to be. While the pilgrims fought starvation, freezing—and well, just staying alive—today they fight a different foe: commercialism. Commercialism is squeezing Thanksgiving out of the way. Like Alfred the janitor kid in Miracle on 34th Street says, “Yeah, there's a lot of b...