I am standing at my kitchen sink, gazing out the window as the afternoon sun dissolves into the sky. I am supposed to be peeling potatoes for supper ...

The big red stripe ran the length of the white envelope proclaiming, Juror Summons Enclosed. Jury duty. I decided to take a positive attitude. Why not? They do pay forty bucks a day; it's a ...

Ever wonder where Halloween traditions came from? Are they evil? Pagan? Holy? Fire FestivalsThe ancient Celts celebrated seasonal feasts to honor the gods of nature. Halloween's pagan origin was a fire festival known as ...

I might as well admit it, the words "presidential election" cause me to fantasize about moving to a desert island where all the mind-numbing nonsense that passes for campaigning ...

February 16, 2003, New York—Maybe the best makeshift protest sign came as we rounded the corner on to the demonstration site on First Avenue. Someone—we couldn't see the bearer—had duct-taped a ...

The sheer amount of food is nauseating—a typical plate consists of beef, pork, chicken, sausage, potato salad, rice, corn salad, tomato salad, and a glass of wine. After an extensive grilling process, the traditional Chilean ...

My neighbor owns two tanker trucks and supplies water to houses that don't get a regular supply. He's constantly working on the tankers with his helpers, opening up the ...

Entire wars have been fought over it, British lords beheaded, Spanish mystics incarcerated, principalities set on fire, and now it travels the internet in search of friendships to destroy. It is religion. And ...

Recently I took a trip I approached with both anticipation and dread . The marrying kind "We're getting married," my friend Kay had said when I picked up the phone. ...

I'm an optimist. I can find a positive spin in any situation. I'll admit, though, my gift of optimism failed me last year on Tuesday, September 10, a day ...

Shanksville, PA, Sept. 7, 2003—About ten miles off the Pennsylvania Turnpike (about 80 miles before you get to Pittsburgh), Shanksville is small town America incarnate. It must be the mostly unlikely place imaginable for the ...

They say you can't go home again. In my case, its usually because someone has changed the locks on the door—so that I, literally, can't go ...

The power actually browned out—gradually—in our section of midtown Manhattan on August 14 at 4:10 p.m. But before ten full minutes had elapsed, everything was completely gone. Like for most ...

Ash Wednesday, 1932 An art student stands on the avenue in New York City in 1932, looking up at the Empire State Building, recently completed. Most people from around the ...

By all accounts, Gay Pride Week in Toronto was different this year. Normally, the festivities draw thousands of tourists to the capital of Ontario and the annual parade?that took place on Sunday June 29?can attract ...

My friend Smita (name changed) refuses to write brochures and marketing material for companies because she feels uncomfortable "bending the truth." It's common knowledge that brochures sometimes misrepresent product features, but she won't write brochures at ...

This summer seeping through the quagmire of continuous news coverage of disappearing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the latest J.Lo and Ben antics was news on the ...

Nearly six years to the day that I received my first theology degree, I was back in Boston at an ordination (see box below). I was at the Episcopal cathedral, not the Catholic one. Jen, a ...

Summertime…and the living is on the go. This summer I headed south to El Salvador in Central America. It's a breathtakingly beautiful land country, but with a turbulent history that includes many modern-day Christian ...

I'll admit it-I'm a student loan debtor . Big time. And like most of you I'm not expecting forgiveness anytime soon. My loan woe A few years ago I set out to improve myself ...