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Elements of a Banned Book
by Jacob Schepers | Oct 2, 2015 | Placeless
So let’s celebrate the fiery element of those banned books which smoke out the assumptions and biases we hold. The catalyst they provide is a Pentecost of perceptions, the beauty of flaming tongues affixed to the mind.
Pailando Through the Storm
by Katerina Parsons | Oct 1, 2015 | Honduras
Hector saw the storm coming before we did and he pulled the truck over and handed us a tarp. And suddenly it was raining in the way it does here: buckets of rain, sheets of rain,
Wrong Fit
by Josh Boerman | Sep 30, 2015 | Grand Rapids
From a purely practical perspective, it makes sense; these cuts will save the college money and Calvin can still claim to have a theatre program. But the decision lacks educational and artistic vision.
What Pope Francis Teaches Us About Living With Integrity
by Ryan Struyk | Sep 29, 2015 | Placeless
Day after day, the actions of Pope Francis nudged at me and called me to be a better person. To live with integrity. To, quite literally, practice what we preach.
Don’t Buy This House
by Bekah (Williamson) Medendorp | Sep 28, 2015 | Placeless
I have slept on the second floor of 6830 West Liberty Road for twenty-four years. I am intimately aware of each creak and groan of the house as it settles in the evening.
Inevitable! Magical! Genius!
by Brad Zwiers | Sep 27, 2015 | Holland
There’s a large chance that right now I’m making something out of that goal and that moment that wasn’t there. It’s just a game, you’ll say, and you’re right.
The Best Burger In Michigan
by Nick Meekhof | Sep 26, 2015 | Michigan
“This is not Burger King. You don’t have it your way. You take it Bud’s way.” This was true. There were two items on the menu, a “hamburg” and a “cheeseburg.”
Bronze Age of the Nineties
by Jacqueline Ristola | Sep 25, 2015 | Grand Rapids
These reflections confirm the intricacies of life, ultimately illustrating the album’s inner strength: that maturity is an act of becoming, often propelled by experiences of both trauma and joy.
Prayer
by Lauren (Boersma) Harris | Sep 24, 2015 | Placeless
You are good. I’m not sure why it’s important to tell you. But I tell my dog she’s good just about as often as I tell you, and she spends a lot of time bashing her head against walls and licking her own butt. So that’s a shame.
Never Far From Home
by Michael Kelly | Sep 23, 2015 | Grand Rapids, Massachusetts
I had been living in Boston for about two months at the time, and it only took one week to realize that the gay-to-straight ratio here is exponentially larger than in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Stella’s: The Monday Night Congregation
by Matt Medendorp | Sep 22, 2015 | Grand Rapids
Fable, the pastor with early access to the communion wine, weaving, introduces guest speakers to deliver their personal sermons and stories of salvation.
The Game To End All Games
by Andrew Orlebeke | Sep 21, 2015 | Washington
That’s why I began playing again in Korea; I was looking for friends and I knew that Ultimate people, by and large, are people with whom I like to spend time.
The Last Year of Youth
by Gabe Gunnink | Sep 20, 2015 | Placeless
Deep down, I know that there’s no “getting it right.” The most tragic aspect of this segue from youth to adulthood is simply realizing you can’t choose everything.
$10,000 Razor Scooter
by Mary Margaret Healy | Sep 19, 2015 | Placeless
Hearing my mom talk lovingly about her scooter and all the great happiness it would bring her, my brothers and I all laughed like bullies in the cafeteria.
Campus Ministry
by Ben DeVries | Sep 18, 2015 | Placeless
But mostly when I laughed, I laughed not because of the priest-man’s antics, or because of the students’ enthusiasm for debauchery. Mostly I laughed to hide my uneasiness.
Hold the Door
by Geneva Langeland | Sep 17, 2015 | Ann Arbor
What if a Christian politician actually gave a Christian answer to the refugee question? Yes, the refugees are dusty and tired. Yes, they are desperate. Yes, we will let them in.
Learning from Emmanuel
by Andrew Knot | Sep 16, 2015 | Germany
You understand the subject, could identify, spell, and define each subsequent word or phrase, and are then met with a verb that can’t possibly make sense in the imagined understanding. What’s left is January North Sea coastline.
Whale Watching
by Cassie Westrate | Sep 15, 2015 | Washington
“Now,” he says. “I don’t wanna be out there with a root canal. So if we don’t see any whales, and you’re gonna pout about it, I prefer you get off now.”
The End of Solitude
by Will Montei | Sep 14, 2015 | Washington, Wisconsin
Strange how things happen. You can put all your effort into living well only to find that you were living just fine the whole time.
Swinging
by Catherine Kramer | Sep 13, 2015 | France
So we turned our backs on the ocean and found one of the last things we expected to find on the beach in France: a ping pong tournament.
Inventory
by Abby Zwart | Sep 12, 2015 | Placeless
Confetti from a dropped and spilled 3-hole punch; Crumpled 8.5×11 sheet, blank and inexplicably wet; Crumpled 8.5×11 sheet, Wednesday’s homework, unfinished
A Bold and Meaningless Endeavor
by Elaine Schnabel | Sep 11, 2015 | Placeless
He asks the Christian to both hate the world enough to want to change and it and love it without rationality. I do love and hate the world, I realized as I read, and that is something that matters more than I.
Dog Days
by Katie Van Zanen | Sep 10, 2015 | Grand Rapids, Massachusetts
I was ten and had three consuming desires in life: a yellow bedroom, an American Girl doll, and a dog. So I was devastated, but prepared to bargain.
Apartment 2G
by Bart Tocci | Sep 9, 2015 | Chicago
There were fifteen of us sitting on the floor, playing Mario Tennis on GameCube, like kids. He stormed in, all sideburns and mustache, and yelled at us like kids.
Fantasy Football (Or: A Lovecraftian Descent into Obsession and Madness)
by Paul Menn | Sep 8, 2015 | Placeless
My team radiates with eldritch powers. Led by the dark priest Roethlisberger, the strength and conviction of disciples such as Eddie Lacy and Dez Bryant shall not fail me.
Six Reasons Not to Move
by Caroline (Higgins) Nyczak | Sep 7, 2015 | New York
A new bar just opened down the street. By down the street I mean the on-foot travel time is about thirteen seconds. It was Coming Soon for weeks.
Me and My Book
by Josh deLacy | Sep 6, 2015 | Colorado, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Washington
No one believes it. I didn’t believe it, until I grabbed the bumper, tried to lift, and realized I didn’t even know how to grip the thing. I’m writing about an experience I still don’t fully understand, and the sharing of it is even more incomprehensible.
On beginning. Again.
by Alissa Anderson | Sep 5, 2015 | New York
Even though I said last semester that I was going to cut all my extracurriculars to make time for some of my own projects, I didn’t actually manage to quit anything
Do You Even Board, Bro?
by Ben Rietema | Sep 4, 2015 | New Jersey
The whole town’s milieu has changed from German trampers and the Asian tour bus multitudes to people who can’t seem to survive without a beanie on their head.
I Try To Move It, Move It
by Sabrina Lee | Sep 3, 2015 | Placeless
It’s fun and flirtatious, but even after a couple months of practice, I still haven’t gotten the Cuban motion, the foundational movement and feel of salsa, right.
