“The parable I am about to tell you this morning is a compilation of seemingly disparate threads: a song by the great storyteller Harry Chapin; an experience I had with a church parishioner in…

“Finding one’s meaning in an ambivalent universe is one thing. After all, one’s authentic purpose must come from within and it might take years to discover. Finding one’s meaning on an indifferent planet…

“I invite you to be open to some additional ways of viewing and interpreting such images, aside from the straightforward mirroring effect captured in the elusive moment. Seek out the depths in multiple…

  “I know I am not alone in this. I also understand that older, wiser people will say “revel in the time that you have with your children when they are little and…

“My shower ritual continued to evolve over the years,  one thing added on another until it  required a contoured, long-handled back scrubber, no-skid germ-resistant shower mats, scalp and hair rejuvenating gels, foot scrubbers,…

“Boleman-Herring took up poetry before she could write, and gave it up, for all intents and purposes (jazz lyrics excepted), after reading Auden. How does one, why should one (she says) follow an…

“It was then I began to feel like Rip Van Winkle. Nothing in our old neighborhood bears any resemblance to the charming quarter of only 20 years ago. When I first arrived, the…

“Because I paid for Ouzo, I claimed naming rights and, though he had no ‘papers,’ we knew he had a pedigree. Ouzo was a pure-bred dalmatian, with all the havoc such breeding (such…

“They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and that might have been sufficient back in the day but, with word inflation over the years, a thousand words really won’t get you…

“My people are dying,” said the whale. “Our only salvation lies in becoming land animals again. Each time the dolphins and we beach ourselves, we get a little farther inland. I’ve gone past…