Month: February 2013

  • THE POWER OF PRAYER TWO

    You may recall that a few months ago an essay was dictated at this desk that had to do with Bishop Eddie Long who was pastor of the New Birth mega-church in Atlanta.  It seems as though Bishop Long had thousands of followers and they clung to every word that he uttered.  Not to tell…

  • IT HASN’T HAPPENED YET

    In the spring of the year 2010, I found myself in the offices of my favorite internist on more occasions than I would like to recall.  I had no specific complaints, such as my foot hurting or my head hurting, but rather I told the internist that I simply felt lousy, lousy, lousy.  The internist…

  • UPON BEING SELF-HOODWINKED

    This essay pivots on the origin of a popular folk song written in 1835 called “Kathleen Mavourneen.”  Like many Irish people and the world at large, I had long assumed that “Kathleen Mavourneen” was the epitome of Irish folk music.  The word “mavourneen” is an ancient Gaelic word for “my darling.”  The name Kathleen is…

  • MAKING THINGS EVEN

    There are several conditions and practices in the world that authorize men to have multiple wives.  In the western world where Christianity prevails, we limit one man to one woman at a time.  A knock on Mormonism is that for years the Mormons insisted that their followers could have multiple wives.  It seems that Orrin…

  • YOUR LYING EARS

    A few years back, there was a popular television program called “You Bet Your Life.”  Groucho Marx, the wise-cracking brother from the Marx brothers, was the master of ceremonies for this program.  There came an occasion when Groucho Marx, in response to a question from one of his participants, asked, “Are you going to believe…

  • REVIVAL DAYS

    This morning’s New York Times had a long story coming from Kansas City having to do with the ultimate in revivals.  It described a “perpetual religious revival” which seems to be attracting a large number of followers. Unfortunately the sponsors of the perpetual revival entitled their efforts as the International House of Prayer.  For this…

  • TERROR, COMPASSION AND HOPE

    Those of you who parse these pages of Ezra’s Essays will recall the name of Sven Lernevall.  Mr. Lernevall is an accomplished fellow who speaks his native tongue of Swedish.  Also he and his wife Ella speak flawless English.  Interestingly, the accent that he brings to the English language is of the American variety.  I…

  • SMOKERS MUST BE WEALTHY PEOPLE

    Everyone knows that I am not a man of great wealth.  The fact that I worked for 43 years for AT&T will tell you that I am not a man of considerable means.  But nonetheless I smoked cigarettes for 16 years, starting at age 16.  Finally I quit smoking cigarettes or, as my father put…

  • THE MAN AT THE FEED STORE

    This essay is about the man who works at a feed store in eastern Kansas. It comes to me from a woman who was born in Olomouc in the Czech Republic.  Since her birth, she has migrated first to England and then to New York.  So you see, there are international implications to this simple…

  • APHASIA AND ARTHRITIS

    In the last few months here in the great luscious garden state of New Jersey, we find that teachers are retiring in droves or perhaps flocks.  They are retiring at this time because they sense that shortly their benefits may be curtailed or removed through the generosity of the new governor, Chris Christie.  This is…