Dr. Howell’s Reflections
Everyday, Dr. Howell writes a reflection, inquiry prompt, and a prayer.
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The Last Straw Part 7
June 28, 2025
When it’s the last straw, we can’t take any more. Our patience, resources, and tolerance are exhausted. So how do we go on? In some situations, when we reach the last straw, there is no going on with that person, issue, or circumstance — the dye has been cast, the party’s over, and the curtain is down.
The Last Straw Part 6
June 27, 2025
When it’s the last straw, we can’t take any more. Our patience, resources, and tolerance are exhausted. So how do we go on? In some situations, when we reach the last straw, there is no going on with that person, issue, or circumstance — the dye has been cast, the party’s over, and the curtain is down.
The Last Straw Part 5
June 26, 2025
The last straw can also mean that something is finally finished. Yes, things have developed to the point of full maturation and need to end, collapse, dissolve, resolve, capitulate, wind down, or terminate. This is not always a sad thing. Indeed, many things simply run their course, and the last straw is marked by their swan song and capitulation.
The Last Straw Part 4
June 25, 2025
When I was a boy and up until early adulthood, I listened to the news from Walter Cronkite and, before him, Douglas Edwards and Edward R. Murrow, on CBS. I also watched Harry Reasoner, who was on ABC, and John Chancellor on NBC. Later, Diane Sawyer, Connie Chung, and Barbara Walters came aboard. For decades, I hadn’t seen any substantive differences in the news reported by the different networks. When a rocket went up from Cape Canaveral, when Khrushchev visited the White House and the UN, when Fidel Castro visited the US, and when President Kennedy was assassinated, all the networks reported the facts.
The Last Straw Part 3
June 24, 2025
Did you ever reach a last straw with yourself? I sure have. These are the times when we do something repeatedly with the same disappointing results. But after so much pain, there comes one final time that we “swear” a la Scarlett O’Hara that, “As God is my witness, I’ll never do such and such, again.” Scarlett did not directly cause her hunger, but she gives a good example of radically changing our behavior after we reach the last straw.
The Last Straw Part 2
June 23, 2025
The straw that broke the camel’s back was “the last straw.” How many times have we experienced a last straw?
Maybe we had a long list of “to-dos,” and someone we wanted to please added another task that sent us over the top. Perhaps someone made lots of remarks that got under our skin, but this time, it was one remark too many, and we boiled over. It could be that someone always triggers anxiety in us, but lately, they have been doing it a lot, and today was the last straw.
The Last Straw Part 1
June 22, 2025
The saying “the straw that broke the camel’s back” comes from an Arabic proverb. It illustrates that even the camel, known for its stamina, can collapse under too much weight. Adding one straw to the camel’s load may seem insignificant, but it can be the tipping point, causing a critical mass of pressure that breaks the camel’s back! This idiom is sometimes referred to as “the last straw.”