Sean Dietrich
Columnist
Sean is a writer for The Observer
Sean Dietrich's Latest
BY SEAN DIETRICH The email came from someone named Paxton.“Dear Sean,” the message began, “my dog died today and I feel like I can’t go on. I know you‘ve lost a dog before. How do you go on without them?”As it happens, I have lost 12 dogs in my...
BY WALT ALBRITTON OPINION — The above title in correct English would be: What are you doing? Around the house, some of us take shortcuts with our words. I can remember my wife asking me many times, “Whatcha doing?”I got in the habit of replying...
BY SEAN DIETRICH Rome, Italy. The sun is rising over the City of Seven Hills. I am sitting at a cafe, not far from our hotel, editing a column on a yellow legal pad. I am here for breakfast, waiting for my wife to wake up.The Colosseum is just down...
BY WALT ALBRITTON OPINION —Oswald Chambers was blunt about sorrow and difficulty. Nothing is gained by saying there ought to be no sorrow. “Sorrow is,” he said, and we must face it. Sin, sorrow and suffering are facts of life, “and it is not for us...
BY SEAN DIETRICH The man had a dream. In this dream, he died. It happened so quickly he almost didn’t know life was over. One minute he was alive; the next, poof, he was organic fertilizer.He went to Beulah Land. And it was the whole heavenly...
BY WALT ALBRITTON OPINION —During my early and middle years, but not much during my older years, there were occasions when I had lustful thoughts while admiring the beauty of another man’s wife. Each time that happened, I heard the inner voice of...
BY SEAN DIETRICH It was dark. The young dishwasher was on break. He was sitting behind the restaurant, out by the dumpster, tapping a carton of Camels on his palm.Like all dishwashers, he worked hard for junk pay. He was the first one there. The...
BY WALT ALBRITTON OPINION —It caught my attention — the story of a young man scoring a touchdown for Murphy High School in Mobile Thursday night, Oct. 5. When we lived in Mobile 50 years ago, my two oldest sons, Matt and Mark, both played on the...
OPINION —During my first visit to the beautiful African country known as Zambia, my host Alfred Kalembo introduced me to his sister Catherine. Since her understanding of languages was limited to her native tongue, Tonga, we communicated mostly with...
This is not my story. But it was told to me by an old man who lived it.The year is 1987. Rural Alabama. Our main character is a young kid. He’s at a remote gas station. He tries to start his car, but it’s a no go. The car is deader than disco.So...
BY WALT ALBRITTON OPINION —To live well, you must learn to cope with change. The most common truth about life is that change is a constant reality. It is forever foolish to wish that “things would never change.”When I was born in 1932, gas cost 10...
BY SEAN DIETRICH I am mid-20s. I am a cub journalist for a tiny local newspaper with a circulation of about six. My biggest dream is to write for the Tallahassee newspaper someday. But it’s not working out. They’ve turned down all my work.But I’m...
BY WALT ALBRITTON RELIGION —One of the most popular songs across the world is “Jesus Loves Me.” I love the way the song reveals the source of that good news: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”So, if you ask Christians why...
BY WALT ALBRITTON For years I have smiled at the embarrassment of the Pharisees when Jesus left them speechless. The gospels tell of many instances when Jesus, while eating a meal with a prominent Pharisee, asked questions that silenced his...
BY WALT ALBRITTON RELIGION —A woman of my acquaintance loved this poem and often quoted it as she shared her faith with others:"Greenless Child"by Ann WeemsI watched her go uncelebrated into the second grade,A greenless child,Gray among the orange...