Anyone watching me walk might have wondered what I found so funny at such an early hour. We were in Oklahoma, and I awoke predawn, taking to the streets while all were asleep in the house. That was when my daughter-in-law, Kayla, sent me a Facetime call. Our granddaughter, Stella, was up early too, as children …
It’s being called “The Working Class Anthem.” The song by Oliver Anthony, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” resonates with millions. Anthony describes the working person’s struggles in the song’s first lines before pivoting to the social-political changes that dominate so much public conversation today. The song has become a YouTube sensation with tens of millions …
I don’t know how many grave markers surrounded me as I walked through the cemetery, the early morning dew glistening on the neatly manicured cemetery lawn, donning the gravesites with a heavenly aura, giving me the sense that I had entered another dimension: a sacred one. Except for a few priests, who had served at …
I sat in my doctor’s office for my annual wellness exam. I felt a sense of satisfaction as he carefully reviewed my lab work: “Vitamin D3: great; cholesterol: excellent, potassium, fine….” It all checked out favorably as he analyzed each item. I was glancing toward the exit when my doctor hesitated. “Let’s see, did you …
From my first day at Washington Elementary—when I reluctantly released my mother’s hand to take the hand of my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Speck—to the day when I hoped no one would detect the nervousness in my voice as I defended my doctoral dissertation, school has been a process of letting go of the familiar to …