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God’s spirit moving over the waters. Molten clouds surfing the horizon. My heart sweating fear, then tears. Gratitude for everyone I’ve ever known. Love for every soul I’ll ever know. Then suddenly your hands, warmer than summer. Cottonwood trees shed angel hair to the wind. Some catches in your hair. I brush it away, almost.

A real man won’t ask for help.

A real man won’t say he’s wrong.

A real man looks you in the eye.

A real man has a firm grip.

A real man holds his ground.

A real man feeds his wife and kids.

A real man knows how fix things.

A real man knows how to run things.

A real man won’t cry.

A real man makes up his mind.

A real man knows how to fight.

A real man knows that strength is all he’s got.

And yet, a real man is so much more than this.

A real man knows a two-man job when he sees one.

A real man owns the deeds he’s done.

A real man looks with the eyes of his heart.

A real man can shake hands and give hugs.

A real man does what his spouse and kids need.

A real man knows why things work the way they do.

A real man knows what he feels and says it.

A real man will change his mind if he’s wrong.

A real man knows when to pick up a gun, 

and when to lay it down.

A real man loves God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength.

A real man knows that love is all he’s got.

A real man knows that Jesus is the one true Man for all men.

That’s a real man.

— E. D. Nelson

Jesus,

May your holy presence within me

Nourish my faded spirit.

May your grace grow – and I know – 

The bloom of love divine.

And with patience be found fruitful.

And with joy yield all things to You.

Amen.

God gave me the heart of this prayer one Sunday just before I went up for Holy Communion. I wrote down the lines on the back of a receipt, and finished it at home that evening. Inspiration is a gift, but the work remains.

— E. D. Nelson

The Universe’s stars are falling, 

sinking with violence from their lofty abodes. 

pitching down, 

cracking the black skull, 

and plunging headlong through the yawning abyss. 

Suns and moons surge and fall, 

 cords of alabaster tangle and cascade, 

binding the stained sky with chains, 

thrashing the night with order and disdain, 

descending as angels.

— E. D. Nelson

Do not neglect the years.
Do not neglect the river of life
Or the rushing of its waters.
Warm then cold, clear then cloudy
Ever flowing, always moving on.

— E. D. Nelson

Flying at midnight —
Earthly lights mirror the stars.
Thoughts reflect heaven.

— E. D. Nelson

Transitions have always been times of danger and opportunity. The most dangerous times of flight are takeoff and landing, where the airplane leaves earth and enters the air, or leaves the air and contacts the ground again. Essays hinge on effective transition between paragraphs because ideas, to be compelling, must link to one another in a seamless chain; good transitions are also one of the hardest writing skills to master. Life events mark our lives like signposts — birth, graduation, marriage, loss and grief, death—each signpost pointing to possibilities both fair and foul. Who can know which direction our lives will take? To live well is to transition with acceptance and purpose. Acceptance of who we are and what we’ve done. Purpose that helps us make choices that are both virtuous and life giving. If we manage transitions well, we will manage our lives well, during times of danger—and during times of opportunity. — E. D. Nelson

At church we knelt in front of the crèche. There weren’t many of us there before the astrologers and dromedaries. It felt both awkward and serene. The Green Bay Packers lost today. They won’t play again this year. The city slumped. Getting ready for the football game I learned how to tune in NBC. If a digital station adjusts its signal the channel will disappear unless you “auto tune” it. I’d lived without NBC for years not knowing that. At skate practice I asked another mom to help with my daughter’s hair bun; they’re harder than they look. Over lunch, this same daughter pointed out that the two of us don’t like the same things, a truth that both saddened me and made me proud. My other daughter bought a shimmering prom dress. We undecorated the Christmas tree and quenched its lights. My wife vacuumed. I did the dishes. Later, the dog barked until I invited her on the couch for a petting session. These epiphanies, both large and small, made this day holy.

— E. D. Nelson

Cold is the absence of heat,
Darkness the absence of light.
Both feel overpowering until a fire is lit.
Who’s to say goodness can’t overpower evil?

A candle can be seen miles away, yet we can’t tell how far.
A bonfire far away looks the same as a candle that’s near.
We could wait eons for the Son of God to appear
while false messiahs arrive in plenty before him.

Fill the darkness with light.
Fill the cold with warmth.
Fill the wicked places with faith, hope and love.
Wait for the coming of the luminous Lord.

— E. D. Nelson

The last week has been a momentous one in the world of science and technology. The Artemis Orion space capsule returned safely to earth after a journey to the moon. And scientists succeeded in creating a controlled fusion reaction that generates more energy than it consumes.

First about the moon shot. I loved seeing the Orion space capsule return to earth. As it approached there were lovely pictures of the earth’s crescent, whose color was blue. Not only hues of green, brown and white, as you might expect, but overwhelming blue. These were the most powerful images of earth since the Apollo mission, which coincidentally ended with Apollo 17 exactly 50 years earlier.

Equally powerful was watching the capsule descend through the atmosphere. The onboard camera showed the view of the atmosphere between fireball induced radio blackouts. It was like being in a jet above the clouds, only much higher, so that you could clearly see the curve of the horizon. The parachutes deployed in several stages, ending with three large orange ones that brought the capsule to the ocean surface. The TV coverage brought back boyhood memories of Apollo splashdowns. I was glad I had gone to mass the night before so I could watch Orion make its descent live.

No astronauts were aboard Orion this time, only a mannequin. But soon, hopefully in 2024, human beings will pilot Orion around the moon. Then comes the development of a moon lander made by SpaceX. Also in the works is a fuel depot in earth orbit—whose purpose isn’t yet clear to me—and one day a moon base. The next two decades will be tremendously exciting for space enthusiasts. We are finally returning to where we should have stayed all along: our brother the Moon.

Here on earth something equally cool happened this past week. Net positive fusion energy. At the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory they pound tiny fuel pellets with high powered lasers to create fusion reactions, but it’s always taken more energy than it gives. Energy reactors have to do the opposite, creating more power than they need to operate.

This week, that happened. The energy released by the fuel pellet was greater than the laser energy needed to produce it. This means it’s possible—in principle—to build a fusion reactor to generate electricity. I say in principle because many things have to happen before a practical reactor could be built. The main one being creating much larger fusion reactions that require much less energy. Still, the scientific principle has been proven. Fusion reactors are possible. What remains is some very challenging engineering work. But I have a feeling the engineers are up for it.