I’m not sure how the turkey thing started. Why someone turned to someone else and said, “You’re a real turkey.” As an epithet, it is tight and effective. It’s especially useful against a large group, as in “What a bunch of turkeys.” I hope you’ve never been seriously called one and I hope you haven’t [...]

Hi. Alan Root here. A month ago, I went with my brothers, one of my sisters in law, and two of my favorite cousins into the Everglades in the southern tip of the Florida peninsula. Do you know about the Everglades? I didn’t and still don’t know much about it. “Glade” means an opening in [...]

Dogwood winter. Did you know there was such a thing? It’s a part of spring here in Tennessee. Winter is properly over and it gets warm and the trees bud and the grass has to be cut for the first time in five months. But then, in the midst of the march of balmy weather, [...]

MICHAEL W. SMITH “Alan is a sincere and gifted minister of the Gospel. His work with tweens and their families is so unique and so needed. I don’t know anyone out there with a bigger heart or a bigger vision for these kids. There’s no one like him. His work is eternal and I encourage [...]