While walking down Bath House Row in Hot Springs, Arkansas with two friends of mine, both nurses, I found myself involved in a conversation regarding the matter of assisted suicide, personified by the case of Ms. Brittany Maynard, who elected to end her own life prematurely so as to avoid the suffering and perceived indignity [...]
Those who have chained their identities to the opinions of others cannot hear the sounds of their own soul. Philip Seymour Hoffman was a man far more interesting than any of his characters. Robin Williams was far funnier than his jokes. But if “expression” constitutes “the self,” then we will always sell ourselves short. “If [...]
Driving a significant distance to work is a clear and present danger for a hypochondriac. In case you had not noticed, billboards are increasingly about sickness. One drive to work could leave him wondering about the ten most important questions to ask a doctor, suspicious that he might have lupus, ADHD, Alzheimer’s, or certain that [...]
G. K. Chesterton is said to have quipped that when people stop believing in God they don’t believe in nothing but in anything. This sad and tragicomic truth is seen in the pathetic life and tragic death of Peaches Geldof, who died in April, aged 25, from a heroin overdose. In an age that has [...]
Why can’t we all live forever? It seems a terrible flaw in the fabric of the world—that death haunts us from the moment we are born, injecting a note of tragedy into everything. And yet how could it be otherwise, if reproduction is equally a part of the fabric of space-time? An image of the [...]
On the Feast of St Dominic, a beautiful, unique, and never to be seen again Rose faded from this earth. St. Dominic, pray for our Rose. But, I. . . . I am blessed. I beheld her twilight radiance for a bit. I cradle her gently for a bit. Even with all the voices of [...]