If it weren’t for the occasional leaps in logic, I swear, some of us wouldn’t get any exercise at all. OK, nobody knows my name at the nearby health club, either; but I do try to give my brain a workout several times a day. In fact, right now it’s running wild with speculation over... Continue Reading →
Power vs. Force
I’m not one who likes to watch news about tragedies. It’s probably all those years I spent producing and reporting TV news that makes me scream, “Enough is enough!” After seeing only a few minutes of a report on the Amish schoolgirl murders in rural Pennsylvania, I’d certainly seen enough—enough to be moved to profound... Continue Reading →
Why Bad Things Seem to Happen to Good People
If God doesn’t cause or sanction human suffering, how do we explain 9/11 and other tragedies that visit truly wonderful people?I’ve been pondering this question, since receiving word the other day that a longtime friend was recuperating from breast cancer surgery. She’s the latest in my circle of really awesome friends to encounter this experience.Like... Continue Reading →
What Scares You?
Several months ago, my friend Elaine introduced me to a free online subscription to receive thought-provoking quotes from John-Roger, a prolific metaphysical author. One of his books is entitled Loving Each Day; the daily emails carry the same name. Frequently, I save some of these powerful quotes in a special folder on my computer. Several... Continue Reading →
Slamming the Door on Summer (and Space) Travel
If you’ve noticed that the balcony has been eerily silent for the past eight weeks, it’s because the Loud Mouth has been traveling exhaustively—and staying in places where folks really make noise: hotels. Day or night, I was frequently jolted out of a dead sleep or deep thought by a slamming guest room door. Blam!At... Continue Reading →
What’s Going On?
Overshadowed by the consuming war theater in the Middle East, a quiet little drama is quietly playing in Africa that has captured very little attention or critical acclaim. Unquestionably, it’s a battlefield in the global war against terror; but this skirmish adroitly demonstrates how to intelligently confront the enemy. “For only love can conquer hate.”The... Continue Reading →
Selfish is Good. Really Good.
If I see that photo of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s lifeless blue face one more time, I think I’m going to barf. It was on the home page of the Yahoo! news section. It was on the front page of the newspaper outside my hotel room. Sitting at the airport, I was treated to the big... Continue Reading →
Remembering to Count It All Joy
At 3 o’clock on Memorial Day, in collective consciousness, we remembered, honored, thanked, and mourned those who are no longer physically here with us. Among those with the most heartbreaking memories were the 1,600 children who’ve lost a parent in Afghanistan or Iraq. Nearly 150 of those children gathered this weekend at a grief camp... Continue Reading →
Busting “Da Code”
If you think that the uproar over The DaVinci Code has nothing to do with you, think again. Do you think that folks are jumping up and down, screaming and waving their arms wildly, simply to alert the rest of us that a novel shouldn’t be read as non-fiction? Are there any literate adults out... Continue Reading →
O X Y MORONS, You’re Killing Me!
Why is that whenever you buy a new car, suddenly you notice more cars on the road that are the same make and model? After writing about X and Y chromosomes, more news reports about them are catching my eye. One of my favorites was truly a breaking news story: scientists have linked X and... Continue Reading →
Loud Mouth in the Balcony 