Christmas: A lifetime of changes

Some of the names were shocking. Others were anything but. We all knew about, or suspected, Rafael Palmeiro, Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi. But how many of us had any idea about players like Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Jerry Hairston?

On frustrating days, toting objects from one place to another, receiving and sending armloads of paper that will get pitched out, or standing on the college hilltop to watch massive tons of tractor-trailer cargo booming by in either direction—logs this way, planks that; goods this way, garbage that way—I sometimes conclude that the life of man could be reduced to the function of transporting molecules from here to there.

Just after I’d finished my pre-Christmas columns on “happiness,” Eknath Easwaran’s newsletter arrived from Blue Mountain.
Now here was a man who understood happiness, in his long and fruitful life. From his early years teaching English in California universities, he was fascinated by the human search for happiness that pervaded all the world’s literature, the great religious texts—and the American culture around him.

Controlling holiday stress

Thanksgiving reflections

I’m fairly certain Black Friday is why the terrorists and the French hate us. I can’t say for sure, since I don’t know any terrorists or French people on a first-name basis. But I doubt I miss my guess by far.

Listen to the music

Every year at this time, I always like to publicly express what I’m most thankful for.  While I like to include different things each time, I can never sufficiently reiterate my eternal gratitude for the most crucial element in my life which is family and friends.  I don’t know what I would do without the loving support I receive from these wonderful people.  I am especially grateful to my parents and grandparents who have sacrificed so much of their own lives so that I may be cared for properly.  Without their undying love and dedication, I would not be able to survive. 

Cooking up memories