#StudentsStandUp

February 22, 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

I cried last night, watching video of the #StudentsStandUp protests from around the country. It was the first time in several years I have allowed myself to cry after a mass shooting. Probably the first time since Charleston, if I am being specific. I have not been able to cry because I have become incredibly […]

The Guilt That We Survive

February 9, 2018.Reading time 1 minute.

Here’s a new song from me. Hope you like it. “The Guilt that We Survive” It’s the rookie who just made the team Whose old friends now just watch and dream It’s the CEO who’s upward bound With a brother stuck in her hometown It’s the Dreamer with her new degree Whose Abuela still long to be free […]

“Mulligans,” Grace, Trump and Dreamers

January 31, 2018.Reading time 8 minutes.

I’ve been completely speechless for several days, after seeing this video featuring several local women, supporting Donald Trump, and excusing his affair with a porn star, and doing so based mostly on their so-called Christian faith. The American view of Christianity was already in tatters *before* Trump came along. In the past decade, the number […]

Airport Protests: One Year Later

January 28, 2018.Reading time 6 minutes.

I took the first of these pictures one year ago tonight, as I first arrived at DFW Airport, for what would become known as the “airport protests.” My dear Muslim friends, Alia Salem and Omar Suleiman has urgently texted us just as the Sun was setting on a Saturday night, to let us know that […]

Beauty From “Shithole” Countries

January 13, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

Two works of art from “shithole” countries, both displayed prominently in their usual place, above the couch in our living room. At bottom right, next to the light switch, a small painting I bought on my trip to El Salvador. On the left, a larger painting that the people of Petit-Guave Haiti gifted me with, […]

You’re Not Doing It Wrong

January 2, 2018.Reading time 10 minutes.

So, I actually figured out one resolution that I DO have for 2018: I resolve to block, ban, and otherwise ignore the “You’re Doing it Wrong” memes and videos. You know the ones I’m talking about. They’ve been around for several years. “10 Ways You’re Folding Your Sheets Wrong…” “6 Ways You’re Brushing Your Teeth […]

Was This A Horrible Year?

December 31, 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

Was this a horrible year? Or was it the stepping stone to something more amazing? And, can we know for sure whether it’s either or both? These are the questions on my mind, during these last hours of 2017. I can think back to this moment last year, and how it seemed like the world […]

Eric Featured in the Lakewood Advocate

December 29, 2017.Reading time less than 1 minute.

So, this happened.A nice feature on me and my music, in the current issue of the Advocate Magazine. I believe it’s running in both the Lakewood (near home) and Preston Hollow (near church) editions.Thanks to all the good folks at the Advocate, to Patty Vinson and Kathy Tran. It’s an incredibly generous feature. And I […]

The Last Night on the Longest Night

December 21, 2017.Reading time 2 minutes.

The final moments of light on the shortest day of the year. And now, we enter into a period of the Longest Night. As I jump back in the bike in a moment, I’ll crank up the Peter Mayer song, and sing to myself as I ride into the longest night. And the Joe Jencks […]

Al Franken, #MeToo, Atonement Culture, and Listening to Women

December 8, 2017.Reading time 13 minutes.

As I watched tape of Al Franken’s resignation speech yesterday, my thoughts went back to Bob Livingston and Newt Gingrich. The pair, as some will recall, were leaders of the effort to impeach and remove President Bill Clinton from office in the late 1990s. At the very height of that terrible time, Gingrich was forced […]