LightGrams

This Is Paradise?

LightGramsFebruary 29, 2024Volume 28, Number 6 Gatlinburg, Tennessee is a vacation destination. In fact, it’s listed as one of the top ten destinations in the entire U.S. It is completely surrounded by the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, the most-visited National Park in the U.S. Gatlinburg, about two hours from where I live, is where…

A Day For Ryans

LightGramsFebruary 22, 2024Volume 28, Number 5 If your name is Ryan, you have only a day or two to get to Austin, Texas. February 24 is the date of the “Ryan Rodeo”. All the details can be found on MeetUp.com. Among the activities will be square dancing, because “you can’t spell country without R-Y”. By…

A Lost Love Letter

LightGramsFebruary 15, 2024Volume 28, Number 4 Rick Trojanowski placed the winning bid on an old toolbox back in 2017. He was at a farm auction at the time and didn’t take time to look through his new acquisition for a couple of years. Tucked away in a drawer of the toolbox was a love letter…

A Refrigerator On His Back?!

LightGramsFebruary 1, 2024Volume 28, Number 3 Daniel Fairbrother was recently stopped by police in Stevenage, Hertfordshire in England. He wasn’t in a car but was running. So why was he stopped? It was because of the refrigerator he had strapped to his back. The police were almost apologetic, but explained, “We’ve got to stop you.”…

Living The Dream

LightGramsJanuary 11, 2024Volume 28, Number 2 “How are you?” is a common question we ask one another. It sometimes is more of a formality than an actual inquiry into another’s well-being. Still, I’m always surprised to hear men at the prison I visit respond to that question with, “I’m living the dream.” For some reason…

Treasure In A Thrift Store

LightGramsJanuary 4, 2024Volume 28, Number 1 Jessica Vincent has been a fan of “Antiques Road Show” for years. She dreamed of one day finding an object that would be declared valuable by an expert, even after others had overlooked it. She recently had her wish come true. While perusing merchandise at a Goodwill store near…

Returned To Its Owner

LightGramsDecember 14, 2023Volume 27, Number 34 At a book sale in Pennsylvania earlier this month a volume was spotted which had been checked out of the Carbondale (PA) Public Library – in 1904. The book, ”The Cruise of the Esmerelda” by Harry Collingwood, was returned to the library. Still in a pocket in the back…

Cursing The Darkness

LightGramsDecember 7, 2023Volume 27, Number 33 26 years ago a new holiday was born. On an episode of the “Seinfield” show, fictional character Frank Costanza reminisced about “Festivus”, an odd celebration from his younger years. One of the features of Festivus was “An Airing of Grievances”. Seinfield fans have taken up the mythical holiday, and…

SomeBody Really Cares

LightGramsNovember 23, 2023Volume 27, Number 31 For the past few years I have been involved in prison ministry. A few other men from the church I serve and I visit a state prison in our area. We offer faith-based life skill classes to the men in that facility, and we provide a worship service each…

Lethal After All These Years

LightGramsNovember 9, 2023Volume 27, Number 30 Life was significantly disrupted a few weeks ago in Athens, Greece. Work was proceeding on a major construction project when a 500-pound bomb from World War 2 was unearthed. Everything came to a stop as experts were called in. For the next two days people were instructed to not…