Okay, so I’ve compared myself to a few people in my life. I admit it. But it’s hard not to. As a young boy and again as a teenager, my family changed school systems due to my dad’s career advancements. Whenever that happened, I found myself (as did my sisters) thrust uncomfortably into a classroom full of strangers who didn’t really care who I was or where I came from. Now, I made friends and (if I may be... Read more

  “I looked at the rolling country, and at the pale ribbon of road in front of us, stretching out as grey as lead in the light of the moon. Then suddenly I saw a steeple that shone like silver in the moonlight, growing into sight from behind a rounded knoll. The tires sang on the empty road, and, breathless, I looked at the monastery that was revealed before me as we came over the rise. At the end of... Read more

    “The fact of the matter is that there is a little bit of the totalitarian buried somewhere, way down deep, in each & every one of us. It is only the cheerful light of confidence & security which keeps this evil genius down…If confidence & security were to disappear, don’t think that he would not be waiting to take their place.” – George Kennan It was the same old question. And George Kennan was growing frustrated. It was... Read more

“Most of the change we think we see in life Is due to truths being in and out of favour.” – Robert Frost, from The Black Cottage  Please be warned. I am about to interpret poetry. And it’s not just any poetry, but Robert Frost’s poetry. That said, let me begin this essay fully recognizing the shortcomings of seeing in poetry that which may never have been intended by the poet. To make this point, I draw from one of... Read more

“Pax tecum.” I’ll never forget those two words. And the beaming face of the man who said them. At first, I saw him in clinic intermittently. However, as time went on and his illnesses compounded themselves, our visits became more regular. Quarterly, monthly, every two weeks and, sometimes, even twice in the same week. Infections. Heart Failure. Valve problems. Arterial aneurysms. Back pain. Dick had it all. Did he ever. I first met Dick and Sharon when their physician of... Read more

  In September, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI found himself standing in Westminster Hall, London before British representatives. The audience included the diplomatic corps, politicians, academics and business leaders. It was an extraordinary visit. The Vicar of Christ was openly invited and warmly hosted by an English monarch and society which, centuries before, had bitter enmity with the Church of Rome and persecuted its adherents. It was a true act of charitable reconciliation on both sides. And the bright lights of... Read more

Author’s note: I originally published this essay in 2012, but brought it back in the face of the recent oppression in the Ukraine by a power-hungry Russian-backed government. The enduring lesson of Vaclav Havel’s immortalized essay, “The Power of the Powerless”, is that the ineradicable antidote to naked power or power veiled in ideology is, quite simply, to “live within the truth”. As Winston Churchill once said, “”The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the... Read more

  I was younger – much younger – at the time. But the list caught my attention. Quite simply, the question posed, “What is the most influential book you have ever read?”. The results of this purportedly widely-solicited poll gave a list of ten books. The first book, as expected, was The Bible. But the second I had never heard before. It was strangely named Atlas Shrugged by an equally oddly named Ayn Rand. The list continued with To Kill A Mockingbird, a book... Read more