Lately, we’ve been re-reading a favorite book of ours: The Book of Joy. A perfect book for this imperfect time, it accounts the week — which took place five years ago this month — during which His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu spent time together talking about the concept of joy. We’ve…
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She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Suddenly, a man was down on the pavement, being beaten by others waiting in the same line for their turn to go into the store. She’s still haunted by his cries for mercy, for them to stop their savage pummeling of him: “I’m not Chinese. I’m Vietnamese. I’M…
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Their cars and trucks and jeeps line the perimeter of the small parking lot next to the church on the corner. They gather at the same times each week lately, in this season of physical distancing. Before, they always met in the church basement to talk about their alcohol addictions, a common life fact they…
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When the sirens in Tel Aviv, Israel, wailed shortly before 7 o’clock one evening in February 1991, maestro Zubin Mehta was conducting the Israeli Philharmonic with renowned violinist Isaac Stern at the Jerusalem Theater. Another scud missile attack from Iraq, one of many during the first Gulf war, was underway. The audience was asked to…
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The following is a story we shared in our second book, Someone To Tell It To: Moved With Compassion called “The Cure for Loneliness.” “She had more courage in the face of death than I had in the face of life.” —A man who lost his wife to multiple myeloma “The greatest disease in the…
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In the matter of a few weeks, much has changed. Words and phrases such as “shutdown,” “lock-down,” “social distancing,” “pandemic,” and “outbreak,” among others, have become part of the common vernacular. Most of these words and phrases are inherently negative in nature, evoking feelings straight out of a Dean Koontz suspense novel, one in which…
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On March 15th, political and cultural commentator David Brooks — who also writes for The New York Times — appeared on Meet the Press, NBC’s weekly Sunday morning public affairs program. As with every program right now, the show’s main topic of dialogue was the current coronavirus crisis. During the course of the program, what…
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Her phone’s quiet ding signaled an incoming text message. She picked up her phone and read the message, then gasped in disbelief. “One of our customers just left a check at the counter for $1,000, to be split between myself and three of my coworkers. He said that he wanted to help us out in…
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If you don’t scroll the walls of social media, watch the evening news, interact with anyone, (and basically, live in a giant zorb), then for you, the coronavirus isn’t evoking feelings of fear, tension, and confusion. For those of you who are unfamiliar with zorbing it is the recreation or sport of rolling downhill inside…
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When he died at age 90 last spring, we wrote here praising the work and legacy of the Canadian philosopher, theologian, author, and humanitarian, Jean Vanier. A man of deep compassion and humility, Vanier was, along with Fred Rogers and Henri Nouwen, a spiritual hero of our team. Becoming Human, his 1998 bestseller, was one…
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