News & Articles
Shall We Say Grace?
A habit in many religions is for people to offer thanks to the Divine before eating. To express thanksgiving before we begin eating helps us remember our contingency as human beings. That is, we remember that we are not self-sufficient; we rely on food both to survive and to thrive. If we define “grace” as…
Ready Or Not, Here Comes The Election
A year from now, our country will be neck-deep in another presidential race. The months between now and then will go by fast, and before candidates distract us by turning the election into a personality contest, we should use these months to identify the issues that candidates should be required to address. Of course, my…
Under Pressure
I woke up last Sunday morning to two sports stories that seemed oddly related. The first concerned the women’s soccer team being defeated by Sweden. The second concerned Simone Biles’ return to competitive gymnastics and her winning a meet in Illinois. She might be preparing for another Olympics but with a different outlook this time.…
Lives That Matter
Recently, while reading one of my favorite writers and spiritual guides, the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, I was surprised to come across a passage in which he doubts that he has achieved anything of what he had hoped for in life. That reminded me of another man whom I admire and revere, Martin Luther King,…
The Gift of Giving
It is never easy for a person to admit that he has totally misread a situation. This was my experience, and now is a good time for me to come clean about an assumption that I learned was totally off-base. Through the first decades of my career as a college professor, I was aware that…
Renewed Friendships
Earlier this year, I renewed a friendship from over forty years ago. I can’t remember which of us initiated the contact, but it has been a joy to chat back and forth even if it is only by email. Then, this past week, a friend from over fifty years ago found my contact information on…