By Norris Burkes, Feb 8. 2025 During my adolescent years, I rarely introduced myself with verbal clarity. My soft introductions were hard to hear and communicated more doubt than any kind of confident identity. I’d try to tell people that my name was Norris, but they’d often respond with a one-word question. “What?” If I
By Norris Burkes Feb 2 2024 I’m the part-time pastor at Community Church in Nevada City, CA and like most pastors, I send out a weekly email to church members and friends previewing my sermon topic and promoting our upcoming events. After the election, I received this jarring email from a local person we’ll call
By Norris Burkes Jan 26, 2025 I first met Bill at Baylor University. He was a fellow ministerial student who imprinted his fraternity shirt with a mock Latin phrase, “Quid tibi est?” In 1978, Google was still a long way off, so my fellow pledges asked him to translate it. “What’s it to you?” he
By Norris Burkes Jan 12, 2025 In last week’s column, I described in detail what it’s like to go on a volunteer trip with Chispa Project, the charity founded by my daughter Sara, to start children’s libraries in Honduran elementary schools. When people ask me why they should volunteer or donate, I will often tell
By Norris Burkes Jan 5 2025 Not long ago, I spoke to a Spanish club, a group of women hoping to hone their Spanish skills and asked the attendees to “Come fly with me.” Not wanting my invite to be misinterpreted, my wife Becky, chimed in, “And me too.” A few older woman heard a
By Norris Burkes Dec 29 2024 As I work though the 23rd year of this column, I will confess that column writing isn’t always an easy gig. It sometimes requires walking a fine line between expressing what I really think or simply spouting what entertains my reader. As every columnist can testify, strong opinions can
By Norris Burkes Dec 22 2024 This is the time of year when writers like to recount their “Best Christmas ever.” Their stories often include a video of a slobbering puppy leaping from a ribbon-covered box or a marriage proposal, or my favorite, a deployed soldier surprising her family with an early homecoming. But if
By Norris Burkes, Dec 15 2024 If anyone has ever tried to convince you to get religion, change religion, or even lose your religion, then you’ll probably relate to this column. In the early 1980s I was attending Golden Gate Seminary, just outside San Francisco, when I went to work as an advertising intern for
Chaplain Dale Swan and wife Jill By Norris Burkes Dec 8 2024 This week, I’m very happy to announce the 65th birthday of my good friend Dale Swan. Yes, he’s still alive, despite the wishes of his wife Jill. No, wait. That sounds bad. Jill and Dale are a very fit and happy couple, so
Thanksgiving 2024 As I built a post-election gratitude list and remembered a question routinely asked by the minister of music in a church I pastored. He’d stand behind the big Baptist pulpit and ask this question of his sleepy and aging congregation: “Would you rather be in the best prison in America or here in
By Norris Burkes Nov 24, 2023 If you’ve been watching the news, then you know that the world is going to end soon. No, I’m not talking about the recent election. I’m referring to the elusive deep-water oarfish. Superstitious sailors have long considered the spotting of this rare fish a harbinger of bad news. And
By Norris Burkes Nov 17 2024 “Do you think you’ll ever fully retire?” my wife, Becky asks a few times a month. “Definitely! “Mostly. “Maybe?” I say, adding an I-dunno-know for good measure. She asks, because she knows I struggle sometimes to write this weekly syndicated column, travel to speak in different venues, and pastor
