When I began to do the Front Porch in earnest, I was about 53. Now I’m 64. 64 is an auspicious number, even before the Beatles made it so famous: it’s the square of 8, the cube of 4 and the sixth power of 2; it’s the total number of squares on a chessboard. The normal age for retirement in Texas is 65. So I’m on a cusp of sorts. …read more

Please join us at Scholz Garten on December 15th, 5:30-7pm, for a spirited end of the year Christmas celebration of the Front Porch. We’re blessed to have Pittman McGehee, Sr. riff with us on the mystery of the season. Wendy Colonna and Erin Ivey will lead us in singing carols.

Back in the days before Google conquered the earth and enslaved its people, families would sit on their front porches in the evenings and discuss the news of the day. Wandering neighbors and strangers would join those conversations and the strangers became new friends. The internet keeps us connected 24/7. But are Facebook updates and 140-character tweets really an acceptable replacement for face-to-face conversation? Margaret Mead was a cultural anthropologist …read more