Sean Dietrich
Columnist
Sean is a writer for The Observer
Sean Dietrich's Latest
OPINION — I am walking my blind dog in a public park. We are on one of those community tracks.People exercise everywhere. Joggers. Walkers. Cyclists. One woman is power walking, wearing earbuds, having a violently animated phone conversation with...
BY WALT ALBRITTON The pump that provided water for our home when I was a boy was about 75 yards downhill from our house. On stormy nights, lightning would sometimes strike the pump and disengage the power. More than once, my dad got me to go with...
BY WALT ALBRITTON Soon after his resurrection, Jesus appeared in the Upper Room with his disciples. Two were missing — Judas, who had betrayed him, and Thomas, the skeptic.When the other disciples told Thomas that they had seen the Lord, he...
BY SEAN DIETRICH OPINION — I haven’t always been a morning person. God knows. When I was a young man I was anti-morning-people. Morning people were insane. My mother was a morning person.As a boy, I’d awake to find my mother already in the living...
OPINION — Wake up early. Saturday morning. Leap out of bed. Oh, the bliss. You sprint to the television set, racing your sister. Last one’s a rotten egg. You are still wearing Superman pajamas. Beneath your Man-of-Steel PJs, you’re wearing...
OPINION — As we approach the celebration of Easter, it is time once again to take a walk around that old rugged cross. Remembering the sacrifice Jesus made on that dark Friday helps me realize my pain is nothing compared to crucifixion on a cross....
OPINION — Five years ago, I was in Huntsville when the world shut down. Five years. Almost to the day. I’ll never forget it. I remember what life was like at the time. I had spent the previous year working on a book. A memoir about my dad’s...
My dear friend shared these somber words with me during a recent visit: “I am legally blind.” She can still see, but barely. “I cannot recognize a person who is ten feet away,” she said. Fortunately, losing her eyesight has not dimmed her faith in...
Maryland. The old cafe is mostly empty this time of night. Music plays overhead. Pedal steel guitar. The cook is cleaning his flattop. The waitress is reading a magazine. Thank God magazines still exist in our AI Age. I smell cured pork and onions....
Going home was a wonderful experience for me during my first 18 years. I rode a yellow school bus ten miles to school. I loved school but I was glad to return home every day. Home gave me a sense of belonging, and a safe refuge where I was loved...
OPINION — He was a good kid. You could just tell.He was maybe 11. Twelve at the most. He was in the supermarket. He had his little sister balanced on his hip. You don’t often see boys carrying toddlers out in public.The kid was filling a shopping...
BY WALT ALBRITTON OPINION — There are likely a dozen good reasons why churches grow. The primary reason, of course, is obvious: God gives the growth. No one ever explained this better than Saint Paul when he wrote to the Corinthian Church, “I...
BY SEAN DIETRICH OPINION — Columbus, Georgia. I was eating at a barbecue joint not far from the state line.My cousin, John, insisted that this joint serves the best barbecue in the state of Georgia. He made me promise to try it.I ordered the ribs.I...
OPINION- Warning: Reading this may cause you to write a check. But you won’t be alone. Writing this has caused me to write a check. Now, read on; just remember you have been warned. Hunger is a serious global issue. Every day about 25,000 people...
BY SEAN DIETRICH OPINION — Mount Airy. The Earle Theater was crowded, the room smelled of popcorn, and I was onstage shaking my butt.I don’t mean to say I was shaking my hindparts metaphorically. But worse, I was actually shaking them.Namely,...
BY WALT ALBRITTON OPINION — The church is one of Satan’s favorite playgrounds. He delights in getting church members to criticize one another rather than work together to fulfill God’s mission for the church. Jealousy and envy are tools Satan uses...
BY WALT ALBRITTON My friends tell me they admire how strong I have been since the death of my son, Mark, on Jan. 15. I thank them for their kind words. But the truth is, I am not always strong; there are weak moments when sorrow descends upon me...
My phone finally arrives in the mail. It’s small. Ugly. It’s “dumb.” And it looks like it was invented during the Herbert Hoover administration. This phone is incapable of performing any task greater than making phone calls or serving as a...
BY WALT ALBRITTON OPINION — The author and philosopher, Elton Trueblood, got my attention when he said that Mark 10:45 is the most revolutionary verse in the New Testament. Look at again with that comment in mind: For even the Son of Man did not...
BY SEAN DIETRICH OPINION — I miss glass bottles. I come from a generation of glass.And therein lies a fundamental difference between my generation and the current one.Glass bottles were everywhere. Glass packaging contained everything from...