By NANCY PATRICK How much empathy can one heart muster? I find myself aching as I see images and hear stories of the crises around the world. I tend to over-invest myself in others’ lives, but I cannot ignore the pain occurring to fellow human beings. Earthquake in Turkey and Syria I cry as I watch the rescues of those
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By JIM NICHOLS Following is a short Facebook item I posted a few years ago. It just went out there into Facebook Land somewhere and may or may not have garnered any attention or “likes”; I do not know. I had forgotten about it until someone recently resurrected it and reminded me about it. I have no recollection of the
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Editor’s Note: March is Women’s History Month. Throughout March, contributors to Spirit of Abilene will pay tribute to Women of Influence. By DANNY MINTON The armed services still existed in segregation as the United States entered World War II. When I browse my dad’s battleship book, there is picture after picture of the different groups of sailors on the ship.
Read moreTHE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury To describe the workouts he directed as “grueling” might be an extreme understatement if the athletes who ran for late track coach J. H. (Cap) Shelton are consulted. Known as the “dean of Texas track coaches,” he served at Howard Payne University–his alma mater–for 49 years. He worked long hours daily in numerous faculty
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By LORETTA FULTON Bill Minter had never even heard of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes before he was asked to create a program for it. He did that well enough that in January he was named Abilene Coordinator for OLLI. The previous coordinator left, creating an opening. “I realized that this is the kind of thing I really like to
Read moreBy DANNY MINTON On the morning of April 11, 1970, Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert sat in their command module, Odyssey, atop a Saturn V rocket. The Apollo 13 crew would be the third group of astronauts to step onto the face of the moon. At approximately 1:13 p.m. CST, the powerful rocket began its liftoff to send
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Abilene is filled with houses of worship but most Abilenians are familiar with the inside of only a handful. A periodic feature in Spirit of Abilene will give you an “Insider’s View” of some of those places you may have driven by many times but never entered. By LORETTA FULTON Name: Perpetual Adoration ChapelLocation: 1541 S. Eighth St. Website: abilene.sacredheart@sanangelodiocese.orgLead pastor:
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By JIM NICHOLS Do you want one? Do you really want a consolation prize? That sounds like something awarded to a person who does not win, who does not finish in first place. This is one of many traps our competitive world has set for us. It has turned “consolation” into a nearly negative word when it is, in fact,
Read moreMonica O’Desky, Cantor for Abilene’s Temple Mizpah, will live stream the Temple’s next in-person Shabbat Service at 7 p.m. Friday, March 3. Click the Zoom Link below to join. LIVE STREAM ZOOM LINK Members of the Abilene Interfaith Council attended Temple Mizpah’s Shabbat Service in person on Jan. 13. O’Desky is making the live stream available on March 3.
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