Blogs in the Spotlight: John-Robert McFarland

I haven't done a "Blogs in the Spotlight" lately, but today seems like a good day to feature my friend and once campus minister, Rev. John-Robert McFarland.

John-Robert back in May, 1972, shaking hands with my roommate at his going-away gathering.

When I went to Illinois State University in September, 1971, John-Robert was the campus minister at the Wesley Foundation which was the United Methodist presence on campus.  The first weekend we were there, my roommate (see above) and I went to the "Inner Ear" coffee house (it WAS the early '70's after all!) where all the campus religious groups were doing their introductions and giving out information.  Even though John Robert left after my freshman year to go on to get his doctorate, the Wesley Foundation became an important place for me, as well as an employer, for the rest of my years at ISU.  I still have contact with lots of WF friends.

There are lots of reasons why I would feature him here, and I suppose the main reason would be because he is a blogger---but he'd probably relate to being referred to as a writer more than a blogger.  His blogs are his vehicles for disseminating his daily writings.  And he actually has three blogs to his name--two are now the more active ones.  

In Christ in Winter he writes from his location in Upper Michigan (that's the "winter" part) and subtitles it, "Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter…" Just recently he began a blog that I think he would like to call "Just Words," and this was at the request of the publisher, Black Opal Books, of his latest book coming out soon, Vets.  Today's post in this blog explains the situation with Amazon Books and Hachette Books, both Goliaths (as he calls them) in the book biz, and the negative effect both have on authors and all the smaller book sellers.  As an Amazon addict with my iPad loaded with Kindle (Amazon) books, I really need to think about this.  So, support your local little bookstores when possible, and think about the authors who get caught up in the politics of this situation.

John-Robert is also a cancer survivor...big-time cancer survivor!  Back in February, 1990, a seemingly minor issue sent him into the hospital, finding himself in the operating room at midnight, and waking up to learn he had colon cancer and only part of his colon--something he now calls his "semi-colon."  His oncologist then told him he would be dead "in one to two years."  That was 24 years ago.  So much for predictions.  But based on his experiences and his year-long cancer drug trial, he wrote the book, NOW THAT I HAVE CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and Those Who Love Them, which I think I have whole-heartedly recommended here in a previous post to anyone who wants to look at life in a new way, cancer or not.

If you ever have been asked or thought about who those top five significant people might be in your life, John-Robert is one of them for me.  He has done so many interesting things in his life with so many interesting people, which he writes about in another of his books, THE STRANGE CALLING: Stories of Ministry.  And I'm sure I will write more about him in the future!

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Update on our deer - We think Mom and Little One, or LO as I'm calling it, are still here and doing fine.  I did see a fox or coyote coming near to where LO was resting, but no damage done.  And, several crows were attacking a raven which upset Mom very much, so she was chasing the crows around the yard!  Quite the show indeed!

Blogs in the Spotlight - A Dashing and Bold Library

Blogger - Marcia Kochel
Blog - A Dashing and Bold Library: Reflections on school librarianship and what's happening at the Galloway School Library

Some of my most fun years working as a school library media specialist were during the time I was working with Marcia Kochel as a colleague in another Bloomington middle school.  If I had been 10 years younger, and if she hadn't moved away to Atlanta, who knows what we could have accomplished in the school library world!

Now she is the head librarian at The Galloway School in Atlanta, and when she blogs, it is about the things she is doing there in her library.  Most recently she has been tweeting more than blogging, but just yesterday she blogged about her spring break trip to Ireland with another friend, and all kinds of memories came flooding back about OUR trip to Ireland.

Sometime in the winter of 2004 Marcia asked me if I wanted to go with her to a library conference presented by IASL - International Association of School Librarians - in Dublin, Ireland.  It would be happening that coming June and she thought we could work it out that our school district would pay for the conference and maybe some of the flight costs.  And they did!  (They don't do that so much anymore.)  So we decided to plan to go to the conference that was being held at Trinity College in Dublin, and then extend our stay with another week of travel in Ireland.  And since she travels extensively, she had a working relationship with Rick Steves travel books and she planned out the whole trip.  And she even created a CD mix of songs from Ireland to get us in the right mindset.

And most importantly, she was the driver of our rented car, driving on the left side of the road, which went really well most of the time - except for the first day out.  We were headed south into the Wicklow Mountains, on a narrow little mountain road just beyond the lake that looks like a glass of Guinness beer (dark brown with a sandy beach at the top that looks like foam), and we popped a tire when we went off the left side of the road.  So this is us:

Actually, I guess it was me because she didn't think she knew how to change a tire, and was surprised that I did.  And there were no cell phones or AAA to help.  Only a minor injury to my hand and we survived to have a great time on the rest of the trip.

Here's Marcia standing by a Kilkenny County bookmobile.  Seemed appropriate for the trip.

And here are our sock monkeys, Rory and Nate, resting near Sweet Molly Malone's cockles and mussels in Dublin.  Marcia's Nate has traveled with her all over the world, so when we were going to Ireland, she and her husband created Rory (short for Aurora, I think) for me to bring along.  Rory started out in this foofy pink dress, but things got better for her later in the trip when we found her an Ireland World Cup Soccer outfit!

On the ferry crossing over to near Galway.

Standing while being buffeted by the winds of the Cliffs of Mohr, Nate in the backpack.

And our nightly task was to find some local nightspot where they were playing Irish music live, and finding something to eat.  Hopefully this picture won't cause her problems at her school, but it shouldn't since she is drinking tea and I have the Guinness!

It was great fun.  And I hope she keeps on blogging! 

Blogs in the Spotlight: S.O.S.-Sheri on Sports

Perhaps you've noticed that I've been having some fun with this blog.  As I've added more posts every day, I've worked up my courage to send the link out to some of my friends and now I'm getting some fun responses in return.

Today I heard from my friend, Sheri, from high school days.  Sheri and I were in band together and had lots of fun playing at basketball game half time performances, going to band camp, and we even marched at a Green Bay Packer game.  She played alto sax and I played French horn.  Sheri was really into sports back then, too, as much as we could be back in the pre-Title IX days when there were no sports for girls, except for GAA - Girls' Athletic Association.  Yes, it's true!

But Sheri has made up for it with her interest in sports since then! Sheri has been writing a blog called S.O.S.-Sheri on Sports for several years now.

Her blog is a part of the Chicago Now collection of bloggers.  Her blogs follow many of the women's pro teams, but she gets into all the other sports, too.  Her big passion, however, is golf.  In fact, in her email today she commented that she was waiting for the last few inches of the last big Chicago snowstorm to melt, because her golf game was waiting!

So, if you like sports, especially from a Chicago perspective, check out Sheri's blog and say "Hi!"