The young woman seated opposite me at the restaurant was an orphan. A few months earlier, her mother had died of cancer. Her father had departed this earth years earlier after a fall from a ladder. Both parents I’d known since college, a bookish pair who remained in the same four-st

I sat down to brunch with a married couple I’ve known for years.  The friendship is so comfortable, we dare to talk about religion and politics.  Mostly we discuss books. The husband told me he was working through the novels of a Japanese woman who wrote fantasy.  He couldn’t r

Most of us remember January 6, 2021, when Republican Senator Josh Hawley raised his fist to indicate support for insurrectionists gathered outside the Capital.  Many of his fellow Americans were shocked by his gesture, but not all.  Recently, Hawley felt enough wind at his back to t

He said it was okay to cheat. A well-known political pundit gave a thumbs up when the Democrats dumped money into the Republican campaigns of candidates who are an embarrassment to that party. Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a Republican who serves on the January 6 Commission, finds this