A Time to Sharpen

Three times a year at Whetstone Boys Ranch, in the Spring, Summer, and Fall, we take our boys on a week-long adventure in the Ozarks. It’s a lot of work to plan, order supplies, rearrange schedules, pack, and then travel hundreds of miles in a van with all of our equipment. But once we’re there, and we’ve set up camp, we remember that it’s always worth the effort. Lifelong memories are made. Relat...

You’ve seen it on a bumper sticker. You’ve probably seen a meme or a gif. Maybe it’s popped up on a slide during a sermon on Sunday morning: “More Cowbell!” Just 2 words, but their impact is, dare I say, profound. One for the ages! Just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last 20 years, it’s from a classic Saturday Night Live skit, starring the great Will Ferrell. I can’t even begin to...

America has a complicated relationship with cowboys. We could argue about the reasons why and what these reasons tell us about ourselves, but one thing is for sure: everyone seems to like Danny Glover’s portrayal of Joshua Deets in the television miniseries, Lonesome Dove . Rarely has a fictional character demonstrated such “splendid behavior,” to quote the book by Larry McMurtry and the film. On...

Words, according to Albus Dumbledore, are “our most inexhaustible source of magic - capable of inflicting injury and remedying it.” Nowhere is this more true than in therapy. One might even argue that it is impossible to heal past wounds without assigning them meaning through language. It’s not exactly magic, but learning how to communicate is like crossing an invisible bridge you never knew exist...

There is no script for how to help a struggling teenager. To paraphrase the 18th century Scottish poet Robert Burns, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go wrong.” Or as the late 20th century American philosopher, Mike Tyson, once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Whetstone Boys Ranch can’t tell you what to do when your son or daughter is spiraling out of cont...

King Solomon said that if we cast our “bread” upon the waters, we will find it after many days. Something tells me he wasn’t extolling the virtues of soggy toast…although a good piece of sop with a beefy stew is one of greatest pleasures in this life. That and a nice MLT, to quote Miracle Max from The Princess Bride - mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the...