Meditations

To err may be human, but to resign to contradiction is to embrace darkness. What’s the answer to the comedy writer’s riddle, “can we live with contradiction?” Hint: When have…

Nihilism is defined as the “viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded, and that existence is senseless and useless.” Those are two very different things however. Traditional values and…

A reader in Tanzania writes to ask: “How can a candidate who lost the popular vote by 3 million votes become President of the United States? Why is President Trump…

Humans are complex creatures. The question is, do we accept being complicated as an immutable aspect of the human condition, or do we sustain the arduous task of being simple?

Barack Obama’s last appearances as president—first on 60 Minutes, followed a few days later by his last news conference—were designed to strike a note of hope, optimism and faith in…

St. Isaac’s Cathedral had become a memory and a story, but recent news from St. Petersburg brought back strong insights and emotions I experienced there and in Russia nearly two…

As I pass by on the bike, a junior high school girl, accompanied by three boys her age, shouts at the top of her lungs: “I don’t give a fuck…

As the world looks on with dread, the American commentariat continues to deny the underlying causes of why a “petulant egomaniac” has been elected to the most powerful office in…