Author Archives: Doug Cumming

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About Doug Cumming

Doug Cumming is an associate professor emeritus of journalism at Washington & Lee University with 26 years experience at metro newspapers and magazines. After getting a Ph.D. at UNC-Chapel Hill in mass communications, he taught multimedia reporting and feature writing at Loyola University-New Orleans and at W&L in Virginia. Earlier, he worked at the newspapers in Raleigh, Providence and Atlanta; was editor of the Sunday Magazine in Providence; and helped launch Southpoint monthly magazine in Atlanta. He won a George Polk Award and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard.

The Frank Hamilton School of Music

Posted on August 8, 2023 by Doug Cumming

[from my profile of Frank Hamilton in Salvation South] I guess you could say I became part of the Frank Hamilton community before I met him. I realized this one Sunday afternoon as I sat listening to the Showcase, a … Continue reading →

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Mushroom magic

Posted on June 22, 2023 by Doug Cumming

A “mushroom hike” is a slow-moving thing. The two organizers of our hike last Saturday were debating which trails to follow, thinking the 14 of us would cover a mile or two. But one of our two guides, Sam Landes, … Continue reading →

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Three Little Words

Posted on May 12, 2023 by Doug Cumming

The two of us once hiked far into an enchanted forest in Italy called the Sybillini Mountains. From a deep ravine with dancing waters we climbed a path up and up through a stand of pristine trees, mostly some kind … Continue reading →

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The “Truth” in a Pluralistic World

Posted on May 12, 2023 by Doug Cumming

Post script to the post “Three Little Words”: Jesus’s answer to Thomas in the Gospel of John, that he is “The Way, the Truth and the Life,” makes a claim that is particularly hard to defend, much less understand, in … Continue reading →

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No Accident: Sharing another person’s day in court

Posted on May 9, 2023 by Doug Cumming

Those ubiquitous traffic accidents called fender-benders can take on an after-life all their own. They send out invisible tendrils that attach, as if by a sticky toxic resin, to body shops, insurance policies, faceless insurance agents, lawyers, police reports, traffic … Continue reading →

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What the Angels Said

Posted on May 7, 2023 by Doug Cumming

“Fear not.” Someone should preach that sermon. Or write a book on it as a theme that runs throughout the Bible, from Abraham to Paul. The very announcement of Jesus’s birth to the shepherds begins with that assurance, “Fear not.” … Continue reading →

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“Refuge”: Across the Great Divide

Posted on April 1, 2023 by Doug Cumming

Heval Kelli, a Kurdish Syrian Muslim refugee living in Clarkston, just outside the Perimeter from here, exudes the kind of human empathy you can see in his very being. He listens quietly and attentively, and in responding to what even … Continue reading →

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Robert E. Lee and Me

Posted on March 3, 2023 by Doug Cumming

Changing names honoring Confederate generals and removing memorials, apart from a few practical challenges, is relatively easy. Monuments can be moved into museums, and names on street signs can be changed. (At W&L, the four-ton statue of Lee napping in … Continue reading →

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The Poetics of James Taylor

Posted on February 7, 2023 by Doug Cumming

Moving in silent desperationKeeping an eye on the Holy LandA hypothetical destinationSay, who is this walking man? The baritone of James Taylor bewitches with a melody that long ago wormed into my brain for keeps. It sleeps, then can’t you … Continue reading →

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Energy is everything (almost)

Posted on January 9, 2023 by Doug Cumming

“Energy” has many meanings. But there’s one way to see it as everything. Energy is Man’s discovery of fire, how civilizations ate (from hunter gathering to farming), the population-exploding Industrial Revolution, and the cause of Gulf Wars. It’s fossil fuels … Continue reading →

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