Louis Zamperini died today at the age of ninety-seven. He was an Olympic distance runner and the subject of Laura Hillenbrand’s book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. I read the book and enjoyed it until the end. Zamperini forgave the Japanese war criminals who tortured him, even though they…
The eternal question of forgiveness
March 10, 2014
I expect to write about the question of forgiveness for the rest of my life. It’s all right. I don’t mind. The subject interests me. A well-meaning friend sent me the following quote from a Holocaust survivor. Forgiveness is more than “letting go.” It is proactive rather than passive. We become victims involuntarily, when a…
Listen only to yourself
February 5, 2014
Yesterday I saw a video about two close friends named Erik Fitzgerald and Matt Swatzell. Actually, I watched only part of the video. I knew the second it started what it would be about: One man killed a loved one of the other man, and now the two are friends. And that’s precisely the story….
The Great Ham Debacle of 1993
December 20, 2013
When I read news articles and listen to the radio, the one constant is the state of confusion people have about what motivates the bad decisions we see being made daily. Our government is utterly dysfunctional, companies do really crazy things that alienate their customers, individuals mess up their lives to a level of parody,…
Why I no longer hate
October 8, 2013
It’s easy to hate. Look around at the arrogance, deceit, corruption, and criminality you see every single day. Listen to the cretins on the radio. Read Tweets from obscenely wealthy celebrities who take your money and in return wish death on you because you don’t share their opinions. Growing up, I hated my father and…
Is it harder when there is no love?
September 24, 2013
In his piece “Saying Goodbye,” Walter Russel Mead describes the death of his beloved mother, who died September 16, 2013. He writes the following: My siblings and I are immigrants in a new and forbidding land. We have been swept from the balmy seas and friendly isles that nurtured us into a windswept, harder place….
On Forgiveness versus Revenge
September 21, 2013
I love the movie Murphy’s War, even though I hate the premise. Peter O’Toole plays Murphy, the only survivor of a British naval ship that a German U-boat sinks in the Orinoco River, probably in Venezuela. Murphy is the sole survivor because the Germans deliberately, methodically, and calmly kill all the sailors who go into…