It’s been a week. A week since I voted for Clinton and lost. A week to process what this election and the next four years might mean to my country, to discuss it with my family and friends, to reflect on what’s important. A week to watch the aftermath of the most divisive election I’ve […]
I’ve never known a political season like the one we’re in today. I’ve heard stories of political differences separating families, separating friends, but until this summer those stories always seemed like urban legends, like useful morality plays that might help illuminate some of the darker corners of our humanity. But as this summer gave way […]
Last night, I attended a benefit for a young lady fighting lymphoma. She’s a member of my daughter’s theater company, a smiling thirteen-year-old named Ella. She was diagnosed in June, and now wears the bald head and scarf typical of chemotherapy patients. She has a long fight ahead of her, but she faces it with […]
An act of hate is something like an earthquake. An earthquake strikes suddenly, lasts a minute or so, leaves devastation in its wake. It draws the attention of everyone near enough to feel it. It destroys and kills on a massive scale, leaves the survivors scarred in body and mind, shocks even those who weren’t […]
A friend of mine killed herself last week. I don’t know why; I hadn’t seen her in years, and she wasn’t one to share the details of her despair on Facebook. I know she was distraught the last time I saw her, unable to let go of a wrong someone she loved had done her. […]
… Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. –Matthew 25:40 It’s unusual for me to include a Bible quote in a post. I haven’t done it more than a short handful of times in the whole history of this blog. I’m no Bible […]
My last post struck a nerve for at least one reader. It’s probably unfair to say this person lashed out at me with their response, but they certainly directed a different sort of criticism at me than I’m used to receiving: my post was slamming whites, I was blaming society instead of working on my […]
Every argument starts with an assumption. Usually more than one. If I assume the Bible is the literal Word of God and you assume it’s a dangerous collection of fairy tales, we’re going to have a hard time agreeing on anything that touches my religion–which is pretty much everything. If I assume Ted Cruz is […]
On the morning of April 19, 1775, a company of Massachusetts militia formed ranks on Lexington Common. They had received word in the night that regulars would be coming through that morning on their way to confiscate weapons in the town of Concord, a few miles away. As the redcoats appeared at the edge of […]
Both sides are pointing fingers, calling each other names, each blaming the other for the violence that consumed much of Baltimore last week. Politicians are trying to figure out what to say about race and law enforcement in our country, scrambling for words that minimize their own commitments and do as little damage as possible […]