Tag: Kirk Mariner
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Why You Need to Know What’s Happening on God’s Island
Earl Swift spent the better part of a year on Tangier Island and grew to love the people and the culture of the place. But when he wrote about the experience for his new book, his takeaway was not subtle. It’s there in the title. He believes the island is not long for this world.…
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The Most-Read of 2017: A Heartlands Retrospective
2017 began with a quaint and quixotic belief that one more blog might be helpful in addressing the Great Divide. Post-election I was casting about for a way to explore this strange, new world we all seemed to be living in. Were we really as divided as we seemed? Had we forgotten how to talk…
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Love and Arson on the Eastern Shore: A Review of American Fire
It’s in the nature of small towns and isolated places to believe they’re special. Recently I drove through Ayden, North Carolina and found a historical marker revealing that President Washington had spent the night in 1791…10 miles east. It was something. So when the Eastern Shore of Virginia showed up in the New York Times…
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Nunc Dimittis: Words for a Church Closing
What’s the import of a church closing? We struggled with that question last Sunday at Berea United Methodist Church as we held its final worship service. I offered some words for this country church that has been at the center of a small Virginia town, New Church, for 132 years… When I was young,…
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The Empty Bench at The Book Bin – Remembering Kirk Mariner
The sofa bench in the back of The Book Bin was empty the other day. The regulars by the coffee window are hesitant to sit there. A sign on the door indicates that the staff knows that our local independent book store will be a place of mourning and memory for awhile. The bench was…
Heartlands 