Year-end giving remains a big thing for many people. Walmart fights recorded for posterity on YouTube reflect how complicated the impulse to give has become. Social media posts about people foregoing holiday meals with family to battle others for bargains on toys and big screens speak to primal hunting instincts and greed more than generosity.…
One would think that the guy who is marking his 70th by spilling the beans, openly writing about death, sex, and money, could be a bit less precious about discussing money. A few days ago, I wrote, I had intended this week to actually say the dollar amount I have given, but I am still…
Fifty-five years ago I was in a friary, preparing to join a religious order. During my time there, immediately after the Second Vatican Council, we still maintained many of the old ways of the Order. You could join at age 13, for example. We observed the Hours of prayer (Matins, Lauds, Prime, Sext, Terse, etc.).…
This month I will be turning 70 years old. When I turned 50, I decided to prepare for the date by celebrating each month prior to the actual date. After all, I reasoned, I experienced my 50th August 11 months before I experienced my 50th July. These early celebrations put the actual day into a new…
I have been custodian to five dogs during my life. Custodian? Companion? Well, I cannot really say that we ever own a dog. They live with us. They count on us. We also live with, count on them. Over winter holidays I had the joy of hanging out with Dexter even more than usual. What a…
Right now I cannot tell which of these facets of the recent rulings about travel bans and immigration by the Supreme Court and the Trump administration is most disturbing: the “limited” application of the ban, the use of the term bona fide, the lack of adequate outcry by any group of people whose relationships were…
For the past few weeks I have not written blog posts or meatier items on Facebook. I reasoned that anything besides kittens and kids would gain little traction (after all, we do need some respite from The Donald) or was being covered elsewhere by people more articulate than I (or at least wearing pants suits). Further,…
In the mid-1980s, the AIDS epidemic prompted me to take the pulse of rooms for a different reason than I had as a pre-teen before I first came out or as a young adult when I first went out as a gay man. I had earlier tested spaces to decide if I could come out and…
You have served many, many freshman and sophomore students with warm, personal, and solid advice about their academic programs, just as you served many generations of English majors before your retirement. Advising is an essential, though usually unheralded, form of teaching. By continuing to advise students, you have continued to teach; and the College is…
Commit themselves to their own, each other’s, and the group’s well-being. An important mentor in my life used to talk about how essential it is for a leader to be able to think about a goal, the individuals in the group working toward it, and the group as a whole. Over the years I have…
Creating Community for Everyone 