Posts by D C

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…

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…

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.…

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,…

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…

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…

I attended a wedding recently, one where, because my wife officiated, I was able to observe the ceremony close up.  Because my wife and I were both college professors for four decades, we have attended numerous weddings of students over those years, and we have both now officiated at several.   Weddings are wonderful when everything…

Americans of my generation were born in the early years of the Cold War, and, as the word “cold” suggests, our time in history seemed frozen.  Yes, maps of the world had to be altered periodically to accommodate revolutions and other political upheavals in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America, but mostly the…

I suspect that most people would say that their favorite season of the year is summer.  Summer is associated with vacations, good times outdoors, and beloved sports like baseball, softball, tennis, and golf.  This is the season when people are usually more active and, consequently, usually experience better health.   But this summer in particular has…

When I taught religious studies for over four decades, I became quite used to people trivializing religion or dismissing it as something weak and anemic.  The whole point of being religious, some people would share with me, is to be kind.  No wonder many people think that religious training might be good for children but…