Most wonderful of all from an American perspective is that we can all feel so good about this war. On the Right, it satisfies that messianic itch to make the world in our own image, while on the Left it satisfies that eternal yearning to save the oppressed. It’s a perfect storm of righteousness and [...]
You hear over and over again how people wish they had just seen the person they love one more time, or done this or that for her before she died. But I had that for nearly a decade. I knew Sharon was dying, and I tried to make the most of it. On September 18, [...]
Yesterday, At the home, Not her home, I found her sleeping Lying soft upon the mattress Curled up fetally on her left side, As almost always for 40 years past. I had forgotten, utterly the soft heaving of her breast, I had forgotten, totally that stone-calm face hiding a hundred hurts and a thousand worries. [...]
Even fairytales, or perhaps especially fairytales, should always tell the truth. So, here’s one truth: Big Dog was a bad dog. Just ask any of her neighbors. She had bitten more than her fair share, and if some of them had also torn into her from time to time, well, that still was no excuse. [...]
Battered and barren, slammed against cast iron sky, Ignored and forgotten, Their dazzling leaves now a distant sorrow. Still beautiful. In a December fast fading. She walks, head bowed and listing, Uprooted, Upright nevermore. But still beautiful. This December dying fast. Crippling thoughts Fracturing time, Slammed against winter facts, I whimper. I fall. The year ending and no new beginning. The Imaginative Conservative applies [...]
As we have greatly miscalculated Russia’s sense of betrayal and alienation, Russia has greatly miscalculated Ukrainian tenacity and patriotism. But we have all already fallen into a no-win situation. It doesn’t matter how this ends, whether with the collapse or humiliation of Russia, or the incorporation of Ukraine into a larger federation of Slavic states—or [...]
Russia’s leaders are flawed, inclined toward violence, and covetous of power—but this doesn’t make them much different from the leaders of every other nation-state. On March 10, 2014, American ambassadors from across the globe descended on Washington for our annual conference: a few days to forget about the day-to-day hassles of running embassies and coping [...]
There are many issues with which I still can find no common ground with either party. There are many other issues as well that neither party adequately and responsibly handle, but there is one issue that I simply could not ignore anymore: racism. Since 1972, I have always voted either for the Democratic candidate or [...]
Ambassador Young Ambassador Johnny Young. Johnny. Just plain, old Johnny, as Johnny once referred to himself. And that description may be the most remarkable thing about Johnny. He was just plain, old Johnny even when he was a four-time ambassador. His Christian humility seemed to gain luster with each promotion and award. I cannot [...]
Walking along the paved street Early morning in mid March. The early spring hint, beaten back By insolent winter rampage. Stopping, buttoning coat, Looking downward, Toward buttons and shoes. Stooping, spying something familiar In the unfamiliar winter gasp. Warm hands gathering it. Uplifting what cannot move. Cupping it in soft palms, nail wounds Nearly healed, now healing the [...]
For the first time in a very long time, no one is second-guessing the decision by a police officer to use deadly force against an unarmed woman. Why? The storming of the Capitol was criminal and a disgrace. Assaults upon our democratic institutions, whether from the Right or the Left, should never be tolerated. At [...]
It has, after all, always been a harsh irony that you don’t know if a heart is working right until it is broken. You don’t know how much you love someone—or not love them, I suppose—until you must care for them all day, every day, with hardly a moment to breathe. “I really need to [...]
The only time you can be really sure that both the Republicans and Democrats are wrong is when they all agree with each other. This is certainly true in the recent case of poor Representative Mary Miller, besieged and berated on all sides for saying something that very few of us would ever really dispute. [...]
Everything is going well, until it isn’t. Then it is the end of the world, until it isn’t. Unbridled confidence and unfounded panic are the poles we traverse, A jagged, looping path along which we cry beseechingly and grasp breathlessly. […]