One Night

(A Flash Fiction piece by Bruce Baker) The man perched on the sheer cliff overlooking a steel blue sea and stared into a reddening sky. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts, although why one so young should have such deep thoughts was a mystery.  He was barely twenty-one, yet his eyes gazed outward

The Box

(A quick piece of flash fiction) Ed Jenkins raised his head when the door opened. He was the proprietor of the Russell General Store and Post Office and, as such, immediately recognized the young man in the doorway, but not the strange parcel he carried. “Hey Tom,” he called, “Whatcha got there!” Tom’s replied as

The Christmas Bicycle

The Christmas Bicycle by Bruce Baker Christmas Eve was special in our house. We would all gather around the tree after Mass to open our gifts from each other. It was a tradition of sorts. My parents had celebrated this way, as had my wife’s family. After the gifts were opened and the assorted snacks

An old friend of mine, State Senator Keith Leftwich (deceased) once told me that “You never mention your opponent in your advertising. Words are power, and you shouldn’t pay someone to give your opponent name recognition.”

Keith had a point. This morning, I was thinking about the District 2 Congressional race. The first name I thought of was Stephanie Bice. For a moment, I wondered why her name came up first. The answer? I saw an attack ad from the Horn campaign last night before I went to bed. Words are

A Matter of Perspective

Over the years, I have rarely thought about what the passion might have meant to Jesus’ followers. They were just beginning to come to grips with his divinity. Primarily, they knew him as a man. Mary of Magdala would have seen Jesus as an incredible man who cared not for the past but only looked

A day in 8th grade

“Mr. Baker? Can I go to the bathroom?”, Marta pleaded with eyes and voice as she danced around the entrance to the classroom obviously in distress. I paused just a moment, tempted to play the old standard joke of “I certainly hope you can by age 13.”, then I thought better of it and simply

Why indeed.

Why indeed.

A letter from Miguel

Miguel is not a real person. This “letter” was drawn from the experiences of some of my middle-school students. What Makes America Special By Miguel Hernandez, 5th grade                 America is special because it has freedom. My teacher told me so. It must be true. I know that freedom means we can grow up and

What is truth?

In John’s Gospel, Jesus tells Pilate that he is here to “testify to the truth” Pilate then retorts, “What is truth?” Then as now, this was and is a valid statement from any government official. They know quite well that the “truth” is whatever the rich and powerful say it is and that the history