The Graceful Mind

For although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I delight to see your orderly condition and firm faith in Christ" (Colossians 2:5 BSB) My mom's grandfather, Dudley, lost a few of his fingers in a wagon wheel during The Depression. I remember visiting him and my great-grandmother Ruth in their small, darkly lit home in Newton, Illinois when I was barely old enough to talk. They were old, frail people. I don't remember if I ever saw them standing or walking. In my memory, they are permanently seated in two small recliners in their living room, Dudley on the left and Ruth on the right. I was never comfortable in the house. It was too quiet, too dark, too humid, and it smelled like old people.  As an obedient young boy, I patiently sat on the carpeted floor of the living room while my mother made polite, adult conversation that was beyond my ability to appreciate. On the coffee table were a few trinkets to distract me. A snow globe. A dark woode...