I’m sending this Valentine message of hearts and flowers to my readers.  Some of us have been together for what is approaching 10 years.  That’s a lot of companionship and I’m grateful for it and also embrace the newly arrived. My thanks to you all.

Yes, it’s heartening that cutting the genitals of young girls is on the decline in Kenya.  Yes, it’s wonderful that Julie Burkhart, the woman who runs the sole abortion clinic in Kansas won her harassment case against the man who has been stalking her for years. And yes, it is c

Like many girls raised Catholic, I flirted with the idea of becoming a nun.  The notion of service to others appealed to me and, frankly, it still does.  Happily, I found my calling as a teacher. I know that moment of joy in The Miracle Worker when Annie Sullivan stood at the water

Recently, I had a meeting with a woman about her upcoming presentation at the free summer workshops I give each year. She’s an expert on ways to use video to promote book sales. As we talked, I mentioned the title of an old film, then slapped one hand to my face after I’d done so.

A man pulls his car over to the side of a road to provide assistance to another man whose vehicle has a flat tire.  The response is common. Most of us know the frustration of a stalled car. Sharing a feeling with someone is called compassion. Sympathy, on the other hand, is a guess.

Rivaling the most ribald scenes from French farce, Republican senators at the 2020 impeachment trial of Donald Trump performed with enough buffo to have earned them laughs. Too bad they were unaware the play was a tragedy.   Never mind, let us begin with their farce of jurist imparti

Recently, a Bernie Sanders supporter floated a conspiracy theory on Facebook: U. S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi deliberately delayed delivering the  Articles of Impeachment to the Senate in order to keep Sanders in Washington D. C. for the trial, away from the Iowa campaign, and to le

Recently, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). People rejoiced and slapped one another on the back, forgetting that when the provision was introduced in the 1970s, it had a 7-year expiration date. No matter how good it felt, the ratification of ER

For a writer, today, publishing is like walking through a landscape that keeps changing. Amazon’s war with the big publishing houses is an important reason.  For a while, there seemed to be a truce between the two, but it appears Amazon has used the time to up its game.  Recently,

My broker called this week. He wanted me to buy stock in a company that is building a gas pipeline somewhere.  I told him no. I’m not a purist when it comes to investing.  Oil and gas are still a part of our energy picture, but I won’t support new construction on a pipeline when