On a mid-winter’s night in April, I parked myself in front of a television set to watch the Boston Red Sox begin their annual exercise in bitter frustration, only to find myself thinking about Colin Powell. The connection will become clear in a moment.The Boston Red Sox began the 2004 baseball

Given the culture of grievance that seems to dominate so much historical writing these days, it is surprising how infrequently the catalogers of complaint see fit to mention the Know-Nothing movement in the United States in the 19th century. Even when the Know-Nothings merit a citation in textbooks,

How wonderful it is to have someone beg forgiveness. A dear friend of mine is a recovering alcoholic working the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. After a searching and fearless moral inventory (Step 4), he came to me, and others, to make amends (Step 9). This is where the repentant alcoholic

My mother went under the knife last summer, sacrificing her left breast to the unkind god of cancer. The uncontrolled dividing by abnormal cells, which raised a tightened, angry welt on her breast that her doctor had recommended watching for over a year, turned out to be an aggressive tumor. After t

For a few days in early February, Americans seemed surprised to discover that the entertainment industry peddles raunchy behavior over the public airwaves to a vast and impressionable audience. The Super Bowl halftime debacle, or, more to the point, the outrage the debacle inspired, prompted more th

"How’s it going?" I ask the college student passing my desk at the library. "Same old, same old," she sighs, then pauses. "But that can be a good thing." What a joy to see such wisdom in a young person, I think to myself. It took me so long to realize the blessing