Author: ericfolkerth

Eric Folkerth is a minister, musician, author and blogger. He is Senior Pastor of Kessler Park UMC United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas. Previously, he was pastor at Northaven UMC in Dallas for seventeen years. Eric loves to write on topics of spirituality, social justice, music/art and politics. The entries on this blog reflect that diversity of interests. His passion for social justice goes beyond mere words. Eric was arrested at the White House, defending immigrants and “The Dreamers;” and he’s officiated at same sex weddings. Eric was the 2017 recipient of the prestigeous Kuchling Humanitarian Award from Dallas’ Black Tie Dinner. (Human Rights Campaign) Eric has led or co-led hundreds of persons on mission trips to build houses and bring medical care around the globe, to places such as Mexico, Haiti, Russia, Guatemala, and Nepal. He is proud of have shephereded Highland Park UMC's construction of ten Habitat for Humanity homes, (and one Community Center) and helped forge an alliance with Habitat that led to the construction of 100 homes in Dallas, housing thousands of people. His wife, Justice Dennise Garcia, has 20 years experience as a state district judge and appelate justice in North Texas. First elected in 2004, she was the first Latina ever elected to a Dallas County state district bench, and she she left that position whe was the longest currently serving district judge. In 2020 Dennise Garcia was a elected as a Justice of the 5th District Court of Appeals for Texas. She is currently running to be Chief of the 5th District Court of Appeals in the 2024 cycle. They have the world’s best daughter, Maria, who is a practicing professional counselor in Dallas. Find links to Eric’s music-related websites, at the top of this site’s navigation menu.

Same Old Lang Syne (Fogelberg cover)

December 12, 2023.Reading time 7 minutes.

“Die Hard” is to Christmas movies, what this song is to Christmas music. Listeners will no doubt forever debate whether it is, or is not, a Christmas song. One thing is clear: It definitely creeps into playlists this time of year. Over the past few months, I been learning it on guitar (because that’s my […]

Driving Gratitude

November 23, 2023.Reading time 13 minutes.

On this Thanksgiving morning, I’m posting a picture that shows you what I see every day as I am driving home from North Oak Cliff. This pic from the great Justin Terveen shows a much more swollen river than usual…I mostly post it for how the buildings look…because that’s how it looks, every night… I […]

Sixty Years

November 22, 2023.Reading time 11 minutes.

Today is the sixty-year anniversary.Sixty years is a very long time.But, for all of us who grew up here in Dallas, our city still lives with the legacy of the Kennedy assassination. This is a very old song I wrote to name what it felt like to grow up here, in the shadow and shame […]

It Really Happened, Didn’t It?

November 7, 2023.Reading time 11 minutes.

Today’s trip down baseball’s memory lane are two Sports Illustrated covers, from this week in time, 50 years apart.The first is from the first week of November 1975, following the thrilling victory of “The Big Red Machine” over the Boston Red Sox. I don’t need to recount once more, but will of course, how the […]

Quadrophenia

November 3, 2023.Reading time 10 minutes.

We interrupt this week’s baseball posts for: Quadrophenia.The album was released fifty years ago this week. One of my all time faves, it’s at or near the top of my “Desert Island” list. Later, of course, the film version was released, and I bought this poster. I found the poster this week, in the same […]

The Final Lesson of Baseball

November 2, 2023.Reading time 13 minutes.

It is not an exaggeration to say that I wept openly last night. It is not an exaggeration to say that as Dennise, Maria, and I leapt from our chairs, into the middle of the room —all in mutual tears, falling into a jumping bear hug— I clumsily and excitedly grabbed them so tight, it […]

The Dream of a Screaming Baseball Headline

November 1, 2023.Reading time 8 minutes.

Today’s blast from baseball’s past is this screaming headline from the Cincinnati Post, and more Cincinnati Reds memorabilia from the box in my closest. As we’ve covered previously, my Dad bestowed me with a generational a love of the Reds, which developed concurrently with my love for the Texas Rangers. It seemed perfectly logical, since […]

Here’s To the Regular Season of Life

October 31, 2023.Reading time 7 minutes.

Today’s baseball blast-from-the-past is this actual line up card from a Texas Rangers game on Sunday, October 2, 1977. I must have bought it at a memorabilia convention somewhere in the Dallas area. Probably at a Holiday Inn with bad carpet. It was in a box with a lot of my other baseball stuff that […]

The Rangers’ Icarus

October 30, 2023.Reading time 11 minutes.

Among folks have a certain age in North Texas, saying you were present for the major league debut of David Clyde is akin to what folks say about Woodstock: A lot more people say they were there than who likely were even able to physically fit in that stadium.I think I was actually there. But, […]

The Generational Joy of Baseball

October 28, 2023.Reading time 13 minutes.

This will be my first Texas Rangers World Series without my Dad. As I wrote the other day, I got so much of the joy/heartbreak of baseball from my Father. If I am honest, I put my baseball addiction away for months at a time. Sometimes it just gets to be too much. I only […]