One night Carolyn and I were watching the HGTV show “House Hunters.” An anesthesiologist and his young wife were shopping for what they called “our forever home.” Their budget was $800,000 to $1 million. The couple wanted a grand staircase for future weddings. (They had two little girls.) They settled on a brick house with…

The Russian noun “toska” ought to be adopted into the English language. We don’t have a word that adequately translates it. The famous Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov explains its meaning: “At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is…

On a walk one night, I overheard a conversation between two neighbors. The first fellow pulled into his driveway and got out of his car. “Hey!” yelled a man standing in an adjoining yard, “Where’s the blushing bride?” They both laughed heartily at that. I’m guessing the bride wasn’t the blushing sort. Maybe the couple…

On July 4, 1776, the 13 American colonies declared independence from Great Britain. Their formal declaration included this familiar affirmation: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”…

In his book “Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Persecution, 1933-1939,” Saul Friedlander explains that Hitler’s assault on the Jewish people began with economic oppression. Doctors, lawyers, professors, musicians, and professionals of all kinds were excluded from their workplaces. Jewish shops were boycotted. Jewish students were denied access to the universities. Tragically, the…

One spring morning I rolled my trash can to the street. It was about 7:00. The sun was rising. The sweet fragrance of honeysuckle hung in the warm air. It was a lovely day. But another smell was wafting on the breeze, too. A skunk had decided to liven things up a bit. I could…

It’s interesting to experience the changes in perspective brought about by the march of time. At age 20, 30 is old, and 50 is only one step from the nursing home. At age 30, 20 is immature, 50 is middle age, and 70 is only one step from the nursing home. At age 50, 20…

On Friday afternoon, Carolyn and I were scanning groceries at a self-checkout line in the Balch Springs Wal-Mart. Suddenly, a woman nearby started screaming at her daughter. Her rant was laced with expletives (which I won’t repeat): “I have given you the whole world, and you give me no respect! You’re 12 years old, and…

The four Gospels are full of apparent inconsistencies. For example, Mark says that “as Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside” (10:46). But Luke says that as Jesus “drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by…

Scientists know everything, so they should be trusted. They always have the best interest of humankind at heart. Except when they don’t. Who worked tirelessly to create the 1945 nuclear explosions that killed roughly 200,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Um, scientists? We are constantly being told that “all reputable scientists” know things that the…