Sorry, Hon, Not My Table
I love for a waitress to call me “Hon.” It’s comforting. She doesn’t know me, and I don’t know her, but we fit into well-worn, ancient categories: I am the “Hungry One” and she is the “One Who Brings Nourishment From the Unseen Source.” Read more →
The Wellspring of Decency
The wellspring of decency is loving this life in which people die, people suffer, there are limits, and we make mistakes. Read more →
How Much Do We Deserve?
A friend of mine says that the real secret to every sermon lies in the experience that made the minister want to preach it. Read more →
The Question of Evil
What is it that makes something Evil, and not just really bad, or unfortunate, or wrong? And why does evil exist? Read more →
Sin Brought Me Back
Sin is what caused me to leave the church and give up religion, and sin is what brought me back. Read more →
The Gift of Sin
On a sunny day in September…a stern-faced, plainly dressed man could be seen standing still on a street corner in the busy Chicago Loop. As pedestrians hurried by on their way to lunch or business, he would solemnly lift his right arm, and pointing to the person nearest him, intone loudly…”GUILTY!” Read more →
So Many Little Deaths
When we said goodbye to our son at Logan Airport, his sisters cried and his mother hugged him hard, and I did too, and he looked embarrassed. Then they announced his flight, and he walked down the long corridor to the plane. Every now and then he’d turn around to wave, and yes, we were still there, and then he turned the corner and was gone. Read more →
Coming and Going
Eight years ago, my mother died from ovarian cancer. It was one of the greatest blessings of my life to be able to spend the last few weeks of her life caring for her as tenderly as she had cared for me in my earliest, most vulnerable time on earth. Read more →
When I Die
I would like to believe when I die that I have given myself away like a tree that sows seeds every spring and never counts the loss, because it is not loss, it is adding to future life. Read more →
A Shovel Full of Earth
A few shovel fulls
of earth
await humbly.
Dark brown as only
earth can be—
dug from the fragrant depths. Read more →
