The Showbear Family Circus

Category: articles

  • The Power of Definitions

    The Power of Definitions

                History provides us with numerous tragedies that are as bewildering as they are horrifying. How could a nation, committed to freedom and the belief that “all men are created equal,” tolerate a system of labor that enslaved millions of black people for 2 1/2 centuries? How could a powerful civilized European nation condemn 6…

  • The Evangelical Abolitionists and the Rhetoric of Conversion

    The Evangelical Abolitionists and the Rhetoric of Conversion

                Not many social movements in American history can challenge the abolitionist crusade in terms of entertainment, excitement, and violence. As Ernest Bormann notes, “few reforms have been supported by so many inspired, dedicated, involved, and admirable people and few by as many crackpots, radicals, neurotics, and fanatics.”[1] The antislavery movement was at its peak…

  • The Decline of Civility

    The Decline of Civility

    I. Name Calling Hosts A well-known radio talk show host suggests that a young woman who testified to Congress about insurance coverage for contraceptives is a “slut” and a “prostitute.”              A TV news commentator refers to the President as a “retard.”              A different TV commentator refers to a different President as “a rube”…

  • Before Mud Season

    Before Mud Season

    Smoke from chimneys leak into houses, windows cracked eager to suck in anything fresh. Elated Mothers, doffing last year’s LL Bean spring collections, no longer scold frisky pent-up children for leaving doors wide-open. Soon, they’ll shriek about thick blackish gray mud trekked in all day and night, but not yet.  Dirty iced snow hangs on…

  • Call

    Call

    What do you do when the burglar winding in your window at night bellows, Call, call the police? There were knives in the kitchen, sticks along the wall, a screw gun and the OED.  Mother Earth sang a Capella when she cloned it ten. It could have been more.  Then came the report: sleeper lurches…

  • Routine

    Routine

    Why more autism? Why not much less?   No one needs to know your private business.                                                   We are old fashioned. Therapy is a word whispered.                                                 You are just shy. Socially anxious.                                                 There’s nothing wrong because                                                 everyone is that way, a little bit.   You can learn these things. It’s okay.…

  • The Purple Pacifier

    The Purple Pacifier

    The purple pacifier vanished One week ago. I found it today While rocking the baby: deserted Like a dead man’s sombrero That was blown by a western wind Against a stubby leg Of the gray changing table, blended As gray and purple tend to do, Sticking its tongue out at me This whole time Like…

  • Big Dave

    Big Dave

        The priest slid from Latin to English like a kid on a skateboard coming up to scrape a bench. A catch of breath and he launched into the eulogy. No one else in the church spoke Latin, of course. It was a comfortable background noise, a drone, a lullaby. In English he was…

  • Tourist

    Tourist

    Like a feral cat Seeking warmth From the bellies of Freshly parked cars, I dart from Rotting moments For pockets Of peace.

  • Used car lot shepherd

    Used car lot shepherd

    Before smart devices most lads aspired to astronaut or president. Sister Mary Black an’ Decker prayed that I would grow into a priest. She was a bit strange. I loved her. With her right sleeve rolled and ruler poised, her bicep damselfly tattoo smiled. Neighborhood pals and I pooled our money buying old Mercury. Didn’t…

  • Loveliest

    Loveliest

    O, my loveliest one, amidst a bankruptcy of souls, I see you as an invitation—   your torso is a delight and a metaphor, your feet are a message for future alms.   In the treachery of ideologues, I see you as a vital sign, a watermark of goodness.   In an erratic world, I…

  • Heart of Glass

    Heart of Glass

    When we look in the mirror, what do we see? Do we see the fragile heart of someone, on the verge of breaking? Do we see all their inner thoughts, their tireless demons, the wounds of their youth? No. We see only their surface. The small flaws on their chin, the light flushing of their…