In this video, a gay poet named Molly recites a poem addressed to the conservative parents of the woman she loves. She says, “Catholic, conservative, Republican, living in Tennessee, but the toughest part: they’re wonderful people. They taught their children to organize their lives around faith and service. They raised the daughter than I love.…Read More

The reaction of readers to The Constant Choice, since it came out, has been an especially gratifying experience. Some of those who have reviewed it on Amazon, or send me personal emails, are acquaintances, and others are strangers. What’s encouraging to me is that they are seeing their own perceptions of truth confirmed by the…Read More

Flipper the kitten was born with a twisted spine nine months ago, leaving her hind legs so badly crooked that she could only drag them behind her. When you see video of her in that state, it’s heart-rending, like a scene from a movie where the gunshot victim pulls himself across a room with his…Read More

Mothers, as it turns out, are useful in natural disasters. That’s from a recent New York Times column by Ginia Bellafante, about how the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy has transformed a small band of New York mothers into, more or less, suburban angels of mercy. The stories she tells are remarkable: “Most of them (are)…Read More

A story about college debt in a recent New York Times opened with this arresting first paragraph: “If Steve Boedefeld graduates from Appalachian State University without any student loan debt, it will be because of the money he earned fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and the money he now saves by eating what he grows…Read More