Thursday, January 23, 2025
I was invited to be part of a panel about college choices at my alma mater. Not knowing how much time I’d have to share, I decided to write up my thoughts. I’ve got strong opinions about this. Why should you care what I think? I’ve plowed a lot of ground with my chin. Twenty one years ago, I was the valedictorian of my class, with an almost-perfect SAT score. I basically had my pick of schools.Thursday, March 28, 2024
This will be a short one, and the last one until I get the itch to write it again. Perhaps it seems strange... but I felt the need to shrink my prospects, narrow my horizons, and move on to smaller endeavors. --Tom Horton in An Island Out Of Time Last June, Joanna and I moved from Baltimore to Westover, the southeastern corner of Maryland where she and I grew up. We moved for a quieter life and to be closer to our family while we raise our girls.Sunday, January 1, 2023
It's 2023. Bit by bit, the days are getting longer again. Welcome to winter's issue of This Mortal Portal, and Happy New Year! I've been living, even more than usual, in the land of poetry. The third volume of HUM poems is so close to ready that I dragged my feet sending this newsletter, hoping to include the buy link. [Update: it's now live.] I'm the editor of the series, and I feel a kind of fatherly pride about it.Friday, September 30, 2022
It’s the eighth day of fall, and the eighth quarterly issue of This Mortal Portal. I didn’t write a summer newsletter; I was still in turmoil after my friend Dave's death, and I didn't have the energy to write something real. So I skipped it rather than forcing it. Now I’m back, with: A microessay/rant about lifehacks Vic's Picks are back! For the Record Plus a 90's GIF and a cartoon.Friday, March 25, 2022
Welcome to the sixth day of spring, and the seventh quarterly issue of This Mortal Portal. It’s a shorter one. -V 1,825 WeeksThis week I’m grieving my friend. Back at the start of this newsletter, I promised life updates in the good times and the hard. This week has been one of the hard times. I learned Monday morning that my friend of seven years and colleague of five, David Pope, had died.Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Welcome to the sixth quarterly issue of This Mortal Portal, coming to you on the second day of winter. A microessay feat. original poems (!) Vic's Picks (fall faves) For the Record (things done) Plus an apple-jugglin’ GIF and a strange cartoon. Merry Christmas and happy holi-days to you and yours! -V Do You Haiku?Or There’s Something About Poetry“Chap Vic,” he says to me, “you got an MP3 player I could hold to get me through blackout?Thursday, September 23, 2021
Welcome to the second day of autumn, and the fourth quarterly issue of This Mortal Portal. It includes: A short story based on true stories of people with suicidal thoughts Vic's Picks For the Record Plus the perfect summer GIF and a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. -V (I switched to a new email provider, btw.) Stay Here On Earth With MeThis story is a composite of many true stories that I've been a part of in my work as a chaplain.Tuesday, March 23, 2021
Adventures in becoming a non-anxious presence. Welcome to the fourth day of spring, and the third quarterly issue of This Mortal Portal. It's best read out of doors. -V Don't Just Do Something, Stand There!Adventures in becoming a non-anxious presence“Dad.” My 3 year old was annoyed, and I was not responding. “Daddy!” My thumbs typed faster as I tried to finish the email. Just one more sentence. “Daaaaaaad!” Too late.Wednesday, December 23, 2020
On bonfires and desires. Issue #2 // Winter 2020 Welcome to the third day of winter, and the second quarterly issue of This Mortal Portal. As you read this, Jupiter and Saturn are closer than they've been in 800 years. Christmas and 2021 are around the corner. Jump right in with me, will you? Oh, and the title of my micro-essay (or mosaic of fragments) is also the refrain of a new song by the Avett Brothers.Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Pickin' Fights With Mennonites - On what I learned from my great grandpa’s 1901 journal. Here we are at the first day of autumn 2020, and the first quarterly issue of This Mortal Portal. This issue has 3 parts: Pickin' Fights With Mennonites - On what I learned from my great grandpa’s 1901 journal Vic's Picks - Slices of what I'm enjoying, in music, books, food, place, and moreSaturday, March 30, 2019
Update: a black-and-white version of my diagram appears as an appendix in the scholarly historical tome Reformed and Evangelical Across Four Centuries. If you've found your way to this blog post, you might dig the book. A few years back, I was in seminary and pursuing ordination in the PCA. American Presbyterianism has a fractured history, and I wanted to get it sorted out in my head. I started mapping them out in a notebook… and eventually I decided to turn my scribbles into an infographic.