I recently learned about the story of Irena Sendler, a Catholic hero in Poland during WWII who helped save thousands of Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto before their families could be seized and sent to the death camps. She could see what was at hand for Jews who had been…Read More


Scott Neeson’s life might have been something it would have taken an F.Scott Fitzgerald to capture. As it turns out, this tycoon’s story is more inspiring. It underscores, for me, how radically a human being can become someone nearly unrecognizable to the people who once knew him. I recently read a brief account of this remarkable…Read More


This past summer at Chautauqua, where I’m spending most of July and August, I heard a speaker ask, “When was the last time you looked into a person rather than at him or her.” It was part of a Barbara Lundblad’s sermon on how to strengthen one’s faith, somewhat in the spirit of “Lord, I…Read More


In honor of Thanksgiving, which is, in some respects, about feeling thankful to be able to share a meal with loved ones, I want to reprise this post from early this year: In Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood, Jeffrey Marx recounts an amazing story about how the football…Read More


I learned recently that being kind is, chemically, physically, good for your heart. Not your metaphorical heart—though it’s good for that too, I’ve always known that. I’m talking about the muscle itself. I learned about the physiological processes behind this from a TEDx speaker. (I’m on a TEDx kick now, watching many of these talks…Read More