In the months before our spring wedding, my love and I camped, hiked or backpacked every weekend, most often on the southern branches of the Appalachian Trail.  Old trails led us to unexpected vistas, miles passed, sunlight faded, time stood still. Surprised by love, we needed that time to imagine our life together. One of those weekends, we left the trail early Sunday morning to walk around a lake that bordered a campground.  A congregation... READ MORE

Several years ago, in the hurried hour before young families leave for school, a parent accidentally tipped her large, scalding mug of green tea down her four-year-old daughter’s back.  They spent the next two days in the hospital, treating a painful third degree burn that would eventually heal without scarring. When she returned to school after her stay in the hospital, Mary proudly displayed the bandages wrapped around her torso.  She told her friends how... READ MORE

Our Daughter The summer our daughter turned three, she made her first frienemy.  They had too much in common, too much time together and, I now realize, a fascination with manipulation. One bad day on the preschool playground, she said, her bossy friend told her they could play house or police.  If they played house, our mature daughter had to be the baby.  If they played police, our innocent daughter would have to go to... READ MORE

The year I was born John Wayne accepted his only Academy Award, for his role in the blockbuster True Grit.  Tough guys were cool in 1969.  The little boys I played with in our neighborhood spent a lot of time imitating John Wayne, running through backyards wearing cowboy hats and slinging pistols.  We pretended our banana bikes were horses.  Jump ropes were rattlesnakes lurking in the bushes beside the driveway.  Teachers did not worry... READ MORE

A genius possesses rare talents of the mind and heart. They are usually awkward introverts, strange, muttering fellows who boil vast quantities of complex information down to a simple, useful truth. Stephen Hawking fit the universe in a nutshell. Charles Darwin explained the evolution of all life through the wizened smile of a tortoise. Jonas Salk pondered millions of polio cells and created the tiny vaccination that rescued humanity. Genius and talent are not commonly... READ MORE