The ferry bobbed in the six-foot waves like a match stick caught in a wash cycle. While the storm outside raged, inside, passengers huddled in the middle rows of the vessel’s viewing area, away from wind gusts that could break the glass. Together, the people, white-lipped

The man had fallen near an electrified rail of a Chicago subway.  Unconscious, he lay convulsing on the bare track. People on the platform above looked down, stunned.  A few whipped out their cell phones to record the incident. One African American, Anthony Perry, age twenty, made a

To read the news is to wonder if the world has gone mad. Autocracy is on the rise, while democracies seem to be stumbling. To be honest, some democracies no longer look like democracies. India and Turkey come to mind.  Russia holds elections, but no one would describe Vladimir Putin

My hairdresser had moved away, a small tragedy compared to what’s going on in the world. Even so, most women know what it’s like to lose a beautician who understands their hair. Recently, I found a new salon and a new hairdresser. She gave me a great cut and shaved $5.00 off my us

A columnist wrote recently that anti-vaxxers who fall victim to the Covid virus shouldn’t be admitted to hospitals. Facing death, he said, was too late to embrace medical science.  His statement contains an “either/or” proposition. Either a person takes the vaccine or forgoes t

Donald Trump’s presidency taught us the strength of our institutions depends upon our goodwill.  They work because we want them to.   If we doubted the integrity of the ballot box and our judicial system, for example, we’d condemn ourselves to second-guessing every outcome.  I

Being someone who meditates for enlightenment, I decided to bend my thoughts to the state of our democracy. My reason for doing so was this statement: the public has more confidence in the military than any other national institution. (“Crisis of Command,” by Risa Brooks et al, Fo

After Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45h President of the United States, officials in his government began to replace information they didn’t like with false information that supported their political viewpoint. They called these changes “alternative facts.” Many of us laughed

“We are a storytelling species, every bit as much as a tool-using one,” writes the author of The English Professor Who Foresaw Modern Neuroscience.   I agree. As a teacher, I would tell my students, “If you want to see how your mind works, write something.”  Composition exp

“We make lists because we don’t want to die.” So says, Umberto Eco, medievalist, philosopher, and author of Foucault’s Pendulum. With lists, we attempt to manage time, knowing time is a nonrenewable resource.  A list fixes a task to memory and gives us the psychological satis