The anthropologist Margaret Mead spent her life studying humans and came up with observations that go unchallenged today. One of them is, Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.  But, like the

Last week, my blog was about finding our better angels in the worst of times, a term Abraham Lincoln coined in his first inaugural address.   I am familiar with my darker ones, anger, impatience, and vanity among them.  Less aggressive are the purer spirits. Sometimes, when I’ve

Campaigning with Vice President Kamala Harris in a battleground state, Republican Liz Cheney framed the stakes of the 2024 election like this.  Our own security and our own freedom require that we have a president who understands America has to lead and that our strength comes from o

Albert Einstein may not have said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” but the thought is genius.  An example would be acts of war. Homo sapiens have used violence to settle their disputes for centuries,  even engaged in a war to end

My U. S. Senator voted against the Ukrainian-Istreal aid package that Congress passed recently.  He said he opposed it because of  Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct in the Gaza war.  I like my Senator. Nonetheless, I sent him an email that accused him of being long on principle, but s

Google sent out a 3-page, single-spaced summary of their revised terms of service the other day.  Frankly, I’d rather read instructions for giving myself an enema. Plowing through the document’s legaleze is pointless. What voice do I have to make changes? None. Besides, Google as

A writer near my age admitted on Facebook that though she loved the feel of paper between her fingers and the smell of a new book, she’d shifted to an e-reader. No longer comfortable with small print, she needed an electronic device to adjust for size.    Much in life is a tradeof

During this pandemic, I keep reflecting on the opening lines of Charles Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities: It was the best of times and the worst of times.  The words suggest that fate has a fickle side.  For example, thieves might be happy that wearing a mask in public is acceptable.

Many times I’ve noted a large gap exists between what our brain tells us about the world and truth. My novel Trompe l’Oeil is a study of that gap – the difference between appearance and reality. Even so, we infinitely small creatures of a small planet among billions of galaxies

I’ve said nothing about the tragedy unfolding in the Middle East and the refugees who are fleeing from almost certain death.   What have I to contribute to the discussion?  Failed solutions of the past are already being revisited.  We can harden our hearts to the misery, as Isra