Writing your own epitaph: How will they remember you? — What will be the content of your final epitaph? What will the people who know you best speak over your life at your time of death? Over the years, I have had my share of opportunities to conduct funeral services. Some are warm and beautiful, as friends and loved ones…

York County, Pennsylvania is a great place to raise a family. The landscape is beautiful, there is a great diversity of rural activities, abundant parks, and a growing list of local activities in York City. In addition, York is only a couple of hours from larger destinations like Washington DC…

There is a lot of talk today about people quitting church. One significant contributing factor has been the very public fall of far too many pastors. I explain that here in a piece titled It Might Be Tempting, but I’m Not Quitting Church Anytime Soon. I am simply weary of…

The fourth most under-resourced city in America. The second most stressed city in Pennsylvania. The first of fifteen peer cities in gun violence resulting in death. York keeps popping up in unflattering ways in the research. I moved to York almost 20 years ago. On three separate occasions, I have…

It is no mistake that York County has a unique culture. When our family left Raleigh, it was rated the best City to live in America. Growth was fast-paced, new restaurants, retail, and malls were abundant. Raleigh was gaining a reputation as the Silicon Valley of the East due to…

Surely there is some person in York County whose voice is a nuisance to you. I don’t mean the timbre or pitch of their voice, but rather their perspective or opinion on life in York County. It is a well-established opinion that one should not read the comment section on…

York County is a lovely place to raise a family. I wrote about that recently. That post generated a lot of enthusiasm for York but also some concerned private messages. One person asked, “I haven’t had the same experience in York as your family. I am looking at moving away…

Our schools and houses of worship are battle-worn from years of bickering over COVID, book bans, and politics. Our institutions are struggling to find nurses, police officers, teachers, and even pastors because their respective fields have become public battlegrounds. Local gathering places like grocery stores, movie theaters, schools, parks, and…

We Don’t Trust What We Don’t Know — A 2001 Gallup survey reported that 25% of Democrats and 23% of Republicans believed that crime had increased in their neighborhood over the last year. 20 years later, in 2022, those numbers have shot up to 42% of Democrats and 73% of Republicans reporting they are more fearful of crime. …