Back in my Day

.Craig Cardilino

I have had a few “back in my day” conversations lately and it got me to thinking.  I remember hearing stories from my parents’ childhood and grandparents’ childhood and thinking “How did they live like that?”  No offense, but no TV?  Ugh.

This led me to thinking what stories I will tell my children about my childhood that will inevitably lead them to thinking “How did you live like that?”  So this one is for them.  Kids, this is how I used to live.

Don't Quote Me on That

.Craig Cardilino

I love quotes.  What’s not to love?  Things that other people have said that sometimes relate to your life in a way that makes you feel, “Hey, I’m not some weirdly defective person who can’t relate to other people in any manner.  This person felt the same way. ”

Imagine

by Rob Lohr

I’m one of the lucky ones.

I attended a Lutheran school from 3rd grade all the way through graduation. I was confirmed, helped out in church services as an acolyte, went to Monday night bible studies in high school, actively participated in our church’s youth group including going on several mission trips, and I even helped teach confirmation as a senior. In fact some of my fondest memories of high school came from the church; from traveling to Juarez Mexico to San Francisco to a Blackfoot indian reservation outside of Glacier National Park.Though I’m far from perfect (which anyone that knows me can attest to) church and religion set up a foundation for who I am today.

Now I’m 27 years old, almost a decade out of highschool. For the last nine years I haven’t attended a single church service that wasn’t either on Christmas, Easter, a wedding or a funeral; nor would I even come close to identifying myself as Lutheran. “Christian” would even be a stretch.

Yet still I consider myself one of the lucky ones.

I should probably explain.

"Your Problems are Shit"

by Craig Cardilino

I have a stressful life.  

Work is demanding, home is demanding.  Quite regularly things go horribly wrong and must be addressed.  I have little money and lots of bills and I can go on for days complaining about my life and the things I wish would be different.  Then – a day like today arrives.  June 6^th.  68 years after THE June 6^th that would forever shape history and the world as we knew it.  The day that forever puts me in my place with a smack across the face and a yell, “Your problems are shit.”