Shhhhh.

“There is something terribly wrong with a culture inebriated by noise and gregariousness.”  These words from George Steiner, a leading, French-born American literary critic, struck me as perfectly fitting for how we live today. Or don’t. We live in chaotic times that ceaselessly demand our attention in...

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Who am I?

In the 1999 movie, Analyze This, Billy Chrystal plays a psychiatrist who's treating a mafia boss.There’s a scene with a meeting of mob bosses, where Billy Chrystal unexpectedly shows up and sits in for his patient. Surprised, one of the other bosses asks him, Who...

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What do you believe? (v.7)

It’s been two years since my end-of-year viewsletter focused on what you believe. Too long! Over time, readers have submitted dozens of answers, ranging from the illuminating, serious, and funny, to the distressing and the reassuring. Let’s do it again. After all, we are in...

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Why can’t we all just get along?

Diversity and pluralism have informed America’s identity for generations. In these two principles, we celebrate the fullness of our humanity: the similarities as well as the differences that make us the individuals we are. Yet today we are short-changing that humanity by confusing social labels...

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