I wouldn’t call myself superstitious. I’m a rational adult. However, whenever Friday the 13th crawls onto the calendar, I develop the situational awareness of a gazelle in a lion sanctuary. I can’t blame my parents for this specific brand of neurosis. My father didn’t raise me to fear the date; I did that all on…
Language and Truth
In the traditional Lenten season, we often look toward physical deprivations—sweets, caffeine, or social media—as a means of sharpening the soul. Yet, there is a more subtle clutter that fills our minds and spirits: the “prejudicial adjective.” If one were to operate as a newspaper or a magazine, the most transformative Lenten sacrifice might not…
The Defenseless Child — For of Such is the Kingdom
Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. — Matthew 19:14. There is a heart-wrenching weight in these words when held against the reality of our modern world. To “suffer” the children, in the archaic sense, means to allow them, to make room for…
Small Steps Toward Justice
I often hope that today will be the day I finally “take that long walk” or “end the war.” We have a tendency to speak to ourselves in these grand, sweeping terms, but when our dreams are untethered from reality, they often wither before the sun sets. Perhaps the path to justice doesn’t begin with…
The Whispers of Compassion
In the film Field of Dreams, the whisper “Ease his pain” is initially a mystery. Ray Kinsella assumes it refers to the unfulfilled dreams of a legendary ballplayer. However, he eventually realizes it refers to his own father—a man he had grown distant from, a man who had died without reconciliation. The “pain” wasn’t physical;…