If you imagine God as a parent, what kind of parent do you imagine? You imagine your parent. My God may be distant and uninvolved, always on business trips and only looking my way when I ...

I know that my mother suffered terribly from postpartum depression after giving birth to my brother Franz and me, yet she and my father weren't finished. One day, Franz and I were being good and ...

After a refreshing vacation, getting back into the swing of things that first Monday was jarring. Sluggish from a marathon of daytime TV, too much eating, and not enough exercise made the return to real ...

Before I came to live in Arica, Chile, spending a week in silence sounded ridiculous. I love constant motion; I enjoy bumping into people and I gather strength from personal interaction. ...

My Iraqi friend, Ali, says that before the first Gulf War, Iraq didn't have any homeless people. The rich took care of the poor and the sick. It was a disgrace not to....

Sammy Sosa's seven-game suspension for bat corking ended last week, amidst much snickering and two very respectable singles. He refers to the incident in which his bat shattered, revealing a chunk of cheating squirreled into the ...

I went to Saved , a new comedy about teenagers in a Christian high school expecting to get a few laughs at the expense of bible-based yokels. ...

Wind Dummy? The writing was on the wall for all environmentalists the day Secretary of State Colin Powell called EPA director Christine Todd Whitman President Bush's "wind dummy ." The term refers to the military practice ...

Nearly 14 of us descended on a swanky inn and spa a couple weekends ago for a healthy getaway for women. The participants were divided pretty evenly between twentysomethings and fiftysomethings, all strangers to one ...

 Several years ago, after I made a pretty self-righteous remark at a church meeting, I was reproached as having "no right to be so flip for someone so young" (I was 24 at the time, ...

As my second week in prison comes to a close, it becomes increasingly clear that the prison system serves little purpose than that of a multi-billion dollar industry. The economics of incarcerationEach federal prison receives $20,000 ...

With my tongue outstretched and her hand on my pulse, the acupuncturist fired questions and conclusions at me: "You worry too much. You think too much. Are you angry?" I groaned ...

I don't like President Bush. There, I said it. I don't think he makes many wise decisions. I didn't support his decision to go to war, and I suspect that ...

While my elementary school teachers told me to believe in myself, my parents warned me it was not good to be full of myself. Love thyself and trust thyself, yes, but not too much. Be confident, ...

Recently a certain American Catholic bishop, who shall remain nameless, was characterized by a seasoned priest I know as "a man who loves order more than people." It certainly wasn't meant as a compliment, but believe ...

My two-year-old presses his ear to the bulge that is my belly. "She's not big enough yet," he informs me, his diagnosis delivered with tiny confidence. "What will happen when she's big enough?" I ...

No doubt a sad page has been turned as a result of U.S. troop actions that led to the death of three journalists last Wednesday . It's hard not to think that an unspoken and ...

Down for the count During his homily on World Marriage Day, the priest asked everyone who had been married less than a year to stand up. He then asked everyone married one to five years to ...

With this film, it's tempting, oh-so-tempting, to make the expected references to classic rock songs: "The Kids Are Alright." "Teenage Wasteland." "Another Brick in the Wall." But that's not the world that spawned the kids of ...

There is no question that the American entertainment industry has quite an influence on the American public. People interviewed by Jay Leno during his Jay Walking skit are perfect examples of how ...