The Declaration of Independence includes this fairly remarkable statement: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” I’m jealous of their assurance. If you look around at the world today, if you talk to anyone, I think the one common thread of the descent into our current chaos is that no…

A friend reposted something on Facebook the other day, an anonymous screed essentially telling people to chill out with the online arguing and offering a call for humility and empathy in these trying times: “All of us need to calm down. Quit telling people who are financially struggling that they…

a hymn — There’s an island in New York where they lay the dead to rest, those unclaimed deceased whose coffins stack three-deep within a trench. Easter weekend, how they dig. Lay the bodies in their tombs. Hospitals like Christmas inns, no ventilators and no rooms. You’ve heard it called a potter’s field…

Imagine a world where you wake up at 7 or 8am and get your morning coffee or tea. Maybe walk the dog or jog if that’s your thing, or skip straight to the shower if it isn’t. …

Notre Dame burned the other day. The world mourned. In the days to follow, wealthy donors reached out to offer assistance for the restoration of the glorious architecture and works of art that were damaged in the blaze. Among those to offer assistance was the U.S. White House. When I…

(Note: Originally written in June of 2017, I promptly forgot about this little piece. But I like it so much I’m posting it a year late.) There are icebergs floating past. Here in St. John’s, Newfoundland it happens every year. I found out about it in all the guide books…

GRACE. — My whole life I’ve had this complicated relationship with the word. It’s my name, so it’s a word I hear over and over again to the point that sometimes it loses all meaning. Then, of course, there’s the fact that it’s a word with many meanings. I would often hear…

I didn’t hear the ending to the story of “Pandora’s Box” until I was twenty years old. Before then this was all I knew: Pandora is given a box (really a jar, the purists reminded me) that contains all the horrors of the world, and she opens it and lets…

Paris, France. February 2006. We’ve woken before the sun, which should be just fine as this is the City of Light. That must be Paris proper, though, nearer the city center. Here in the outskirts, the far-flung reaches near Disneyland where hotels pander to cheap tourists like us, there’s no…