Americans fantasize that we live in an nonjudgmental age or at the very least we (almost) universally judge the judgmental as  lacking in social justice. The reality is that our judgment has grown uncertain in areas where we should be sure and sure in places where it should be uncertain. We are confused about whether to celebrate the birth of a girl  by saying: “It’s a girl!” lest we cause offense, but positive certain people have passed beyond redemption. Nobody... Read more

Some graduation somewhere always features some speaker who tells the graduates that they are a special generation. This tactic is so effective that Pepsi has spent generations using flattery to break Coke’s hold on the market: “you are the generation that will do it.” This has yet to work out for Pepsi, but graduation speakers and the Pepsico keep using the line anyway. Each generation is ,after all, new at the start, that being the way generations work. Each generation... Read more

I have been to more than my share of graduations . . . both as a graduate (four times) and as an officiant. There is a nefarious lie that is repeated at many commencements that many of us go on believing for the rest of our lives: commencement is not an ending but a beginning. This is either a vacuous statement, true of any day or event, or it is false. Like many commencement proverbs, perhaps it is simply always... Read more

Thank God none of my children is likely to become President of the United States. Instead, they are focused  on English literature, teaching, filmmaking, and creating businesses: the important jobs. If Jane were to decide to give up filmmaking and run for the White House, I would be disappointed, but support her. It is a necessary job being President and somebody has to do it. My adult children are doing some of the jobs that our politicians, the President amongst them,... Read more

Abraham Lincoln helped my family secede from Virginia when Virginia seceded from the Union. West Virginia was born and the Reynolds family does not look too often at the party of disunion for a presidential candidate, but it is always nice when the Democratic Party nominates someone who is worth serious thought. The Republic needs two plausible parties and just as it would be a shame if the Republicans nominated a loon (looking at you Donald Trump) so we can... Read more

My cousin J. Paul Mace died a few weeks ago and I never told him a truth: he was one of my heroes. Why didn’t I just tell him? Partly, the song Wind Beneath My Wings ruined that truth for my generation by making saying it feel . . . wrong or forced or trite or cheesy. If everyone is your hero, then nobody is your hero. But he was one of my heroes, a polestar that I followed for what... Read more

I know it is a weird holiday . . . not quite real . . . though it was born in my home state of West Virginia and only hijacked by a Hallmark hostile takeover. It can be hard on single friends or those who wish children but cannot have them. Too many people do not have a relationship with their mother or had a bad mother and the sappy commercials are hard for those folk. And yet to state... Read more

Nobody should die for being offensive and the fact that people want to kill Americans for offending their religious beliefs is wrong. It is a greater wrong than drawing offensive cartoons. Obviously. If Jihadis come to Texas to kill Texans over cartoons, they are making a miscalculation greater than an earlier decision to be nailed by Charles Martel. Do not mess with Texas. Bless your hearts, you will find Texans ready to defend other Texans’ right to be jerks.  Which... Read more