Raging wildfires, every day in the news. When I hear that, my ears perk up. We have friends who lost their home in one of those wildfires recently. And we know Native American friends who are sometimes on the frontlines of fighting them. I hate it when we hear a firefighter has been lost - like one young woman was in Idaho just a few days ago.

With some major fires raging in Washington State this past week, my mind flashed back to a heartbreaking story from another fire in that area. They called it the Thirty-Mile Fire.

Sure, Mom and Dad thought it was just another excuse to stay awake longer. But what did they know? Adults don't believe what kids know to be the awful truth - there are monsters in your closet at night. And they expect you to close your eyes and just start having sweet dreams?

Actually I had nothing to fear from those monsters that lived in my overactive imagination. But then there are the real monsters that so many of us have locked in a closet, somewhere in our heart. The secret pain. The secret sin. The secret darkness of an unforgiving heart.

I enjoy reading my newspaper. My kids enjoyed crashing through my newspaper to sit on my lap. Maybe they thought the newspaper was somehow competition for my attention. Oh wait - it was. Nowadays, it's getting harder to bother your father while he's checking out the news. You'd have to jump on his iPhone.

Anyway, I could relate when I heard about this little guy who kept interrupting his dad while he was reading his voluminous Sunday paper. For a while, Dad was able to buy a little time by saying "pretty soon, Son." But eventually, Son wasn't buying it.

I've seen at least ten U. S. Presidents come and go in my lifetime. Plus, four wars, the fall of countless dictators, and the life and death of more celebrities than I could ever remember.

And one Queen of England. Queen Elizabeth II.

Pretty amazing when you think of what the world was like in 1952 when her father's sudden death made her queen overnight - and what the world's like in 2012. But there, throughout the decades of revolution, Elizabeth has been, as one leader said, "a constant in a changing world."

So she really deserved the massive party England threw in her honor this week. "The Diamond Jubilee," they called it. Sixty years - only the second monarch to do that in 1,000 years of British history. I've been to England. It's usually a pretty buttoned-down place. But they were bonkers the past few days. And even news shows in America - you know, the "colonies" - seemed pretty taken with the celebration, the pageantry, and the extraordinary woman being honored.

Who'da guessed it? The Hatfields and McCoys just became TV stars!

The History Channel tried something new last week - their first-ever dramatic mini-series. About the most famous feud in American history. Some major stars like Kevin Costner (patriarch of the Hatfields) and Bill Paxton (head of the McCoys) gave the story some Hollywood clout. It turned out to be the top entertainment TV show in ad-supported cable history. A bit of a blockbuster!

Just the mention of the name John Edwards brings out some really strong reactions. Most of them range from disgusted to just plain venomous.

The former Vice Presidential candidate's actions may not be criminal before the law - man's law, at least - but they violate even our morally jaded society's standards of decency and morality. His wife was dying of cancer. He was having an affair with a campaign worker - and fathering a baby he later denied was his.

So his virtual acquittal on charges of using campaign funds to cover up what he'd done left a lot of people - even some of the jurors - feeling displeased and uneasy.

So I'm in the backyard with our six-year-old grandson when, out of the blue, he says, "Grandpa, I'm going to be married someday."

Oh boy. My brain is in high gear, searching for something wise to say. My grandson saved me - with five little words. "But it's up to Jesus."

Oh boy. Here we go with melted grandfather in the yard. That little conversation has replayed in my head - and my heart - a dozen times since then.

When I was in high school, it seemed like girls had to explain if they weren't a virgin. Now they have to explain if they are. Our culture sees virginity as a bit of an oddity. Curious. Nice - sort of. Maybe slightly unnatural.

One cable news network posed this question to their viewers: "Why are we so obsessed with virginity?"

"I'm graduating today."

That was Will Norton's last message on his Twitter account. A year after an EF5 monster tornado roared through Joplin, Missouri, no one wants to erase that message. Only minutes after his graduation, Will became one of the 161 people who died on that violent night. Out of countless tornado accounts, his story has deeply touched me.

It's a good thing our oldest son could outrun his sister when they were kids. Especially after one of our "earthquake drills." Oh, the earth wasn't really shaking. It was another one of those inventions of a wacky daddy.

It started after we returned from a trip to California where we heard a lot about earthquakes. So - for no intelligent reason I can think of - I would occasionally yell randomly, "Earthquake drill!" And the ensuing script went something like this. Brother would run to his sister and hold her tightly. Father: "What are you doing, son?" Brother: "You said if there was an earthquake, we should hang onto something heavy!" This is when speed saved his young life.

Actually, that's pretty good advice when things are moving that never moved before. Hang onto something heavy.