May 8, 2020

Drawing a line in the sandbox: Friendship in the 'new normal'

"I don't know if you are doing play dates, it's totally fine if you aren't, but just in case, I wanted to check..."  If you had told me three months ago I would now be trying to figure out which of the other parents in...

April 27, 2020

President Trump: Stuck in the White House too long?

There is a pivotal scene in the 2017 movie Darkest Hour about an event that had a major impact on Winston Churchill's success as prime minister, and it is a must-see for currently beleaguered Americans.  In it, Mr. Churchill i...

April 13, 2020

We were told not to go to church -- we went anyway

This Easter morning the doors of my Catholic church, a large 1970s clamshell-style building situated on a leafy-green corner in a suburban neighborhood, were locked.  In an admittedly subdued last-ditch effort to grasp at the remains of normalcy...