Mark McMinn
A Nap in Odessa
I once took a nap in the Odessa Opera Theater, maybe in the box just to the right of where the man in the blue shirt is standing. In my...
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Grace Swirls Blog
Mark McMinn
Jun 12, 20223 min read
How to Live Longer (and Other Thoughts on Community)
The doctoral students in the back row objected when I showed compelling demographic data that regular church attenders live, on the...
Mark McMinn
Apr 12, 20222 min read
Kindness Comes to Mind
Some nights don't turn out as well as others. I'm not a psychologist who makes much of dream interpretation, but every now and then a...
Mark McMinn
Apr 9, 20222 min read
Loneliness Alert
When our parents had us eat our vegetables, they probably weren't thinking of French fries. But here are a couple findings from some...
Mark McMinn
Apr 1, 20224 min read
Chasing Wisdom
Paul showed up in my office a dozen years ago to tell me he wanted to do a dissertation on wisdom. Nodding politely, I tried to break the...
Mark McMinn
Mar 6, 20223 min read
Lost in Odesa
I’ve never been so lost as in the summer of 1999. Brent (a doctoral student) and I visited Odesa, Ukraine to teach classes on pastoral...
Mark McMinn
Nov 18, 20213 min read
On Polymaths, Luddite Spreadsheets, and Virtue
I learned a new word while researching Benjamin Franklin. A polymath is a person with wide-ranging knowledge who is able to solve...
Mark McMinn
Oct 28, 20213 min read
Why I'm Right and You're an Expletive (in 3 easy steps)
Some have likened writing a book to giving birth, but I fear this metaphor trivializes what it's like to actually have a baby. Writing a...
Mark McMinn
Oct 21, 20212 min read
A Reflection of a Reflection
Like so many others, I find myself in a season of not sleeping well. As a psychologist, I know the sleep hygiene tricks and even follow a...
Mark McMinn
Sep 12, 20214 min read
Lost and Found
A dear friend, Jeff, whom I have known and loved for many years now, just reminded me of this final section of a book I wrote long ago....
Mark McMinn
May 15, 20212 min read
Remembering
Lisa and I just finished playing a game of HORSE, but she wanted a handicap so for me it was PIG and for her it was DONKEY. I won't say...
Mark McMinn
Apr 15, 20212 min read
Redeeming Birch
I love theology, but sometimes it sits too comfortably and passively in my head. Yesterday our friend Karl made it come alive again. When...
Mark McMinn
Apr 11, 20213 min read
Rupture and Repair
There's nothing in my John Deere lawn tractor manual describing how it can be used to rip siding off a hen house, but I found out a...
Mark McMinn
Mar 22, 20214 min read
The Purple Bar beyond Dystopia
It's official. Finland is the place to be. For four years in a row it has topped the list as the happiest country in the world, according...
Mark McMinn
Mar 12, 20213 min read
Right to Left
Nope. This isn't a political post. They're not hard to find, though, if that's what you're looking for. This post is about electric...
Mark McMinn
Feb 24, 20213 min read
How to Open a Cheese Stick
Who knew there is a Canadian Medical Hall of Fame? One of the inductees is Dr. Henri Breault, who invented the first child-proof cap for...
Mark McMinn
Feb 15, 20213 min read
Grace upon Grace
From a Starbucks near a convention center a long time ago His name wasn’t Matt. Even if non-Matt weren’t a reader of this blog, I would...
Mark McMinn
Feb 13, 20213 min read
The Last and First Thing We Need
The last thing we need is another blog. The first thing is grace. Yes, we live in a blinding blizzard of information. Almost 2.5...
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