Living Fear

“The only thing I do is live,” said forty-year old Mario Sepulveda. He was one of the 33 men trapped for 69 days in Chile’s San Jose Mine in the Atacama Desert back in 2010. From birth when his mother died, Sepulveda’s life had been marked by violence and struggle; he...

Commencement Part II

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, economist Charles Wheelan wrote about the things that he wished his commencement speaker had told him. Number 7 on the list of 10: “Your parents don’t want what is best for you.” Huh? You mean that after doing my best to...

Commencement Part I

Springtime marks the season of Commencement and graduation speeches often laced with pithy witticisms and inspirational wisdom. I don’t remember much humor from the speakers during my college graduation, Wheaton 1973. Back in those days, Wheaton College in Norton,...

Be Prepared

Scouts’ motto: Be Prepared. This weekend, snow crept slowly over the mountain ridges filling the valley below, cocooning us in a soft, white lullaby. At risk of being lulled by nature’s beauty, I thought about Lady Wisdom and asked myself, “Am I prepared?” Yes, surely...

Principles and Procedures

In a recent issue of The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik published an article about the large prison population in the United States as evidence of the American justice system’s failure. “How did we get here?” Gopnik asked. Referring to The Collapse of American Criminal...