Gratitude for our Common Home
From a distance the world looks blue and green And the snow-capped mountains white From a distance the ocean meets the stream And the eagle takes to flight. People of ...
Doubt, and the Fear of Death
Back in 1995 when I was 53 years old, I wrote a Father’s Day piece for The Des Moines Sunday Register about Pat Carney, my 94-year-old father. It was entitled, ...
How Religion Makes Us Better
I’ve noticed that as I grow older, I’m less likely to have bouts of anger – something that in the past I’ve had more often than I care to admit ...
Chasing Certainty
In the newsroom at the newspaper where I worked was a sign saying, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” The message, of course, is that nothing ...
Good, and Bad, Priests
My best friend – after my wife and kids – is Father Gerald Waris. We’ve been friends for at least 72 years when his family moved in “across the alley” ...
Should You Be Loyal to a Religion?
I once wrote a newspaper story about a man in his mid-80s who cared for his wife who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at a young age. She was ...