The Sea Approaches

The Doppler radar showed a perfect pinwheel of storm clouds spinning off Cape Hatteras on the coast of North Carolina, drawing energy off the warm waters of the Gulf Stream: a nor’easter. Down on the... Read More

A Different Fight for Marriage Equality A humanist celebrant helps a couple say “I do” and the court says “No, you don’t”

On Monday, March 24, 2014, I received a phone call from a woman seeking a humanist wedding officiant. It was a pleasant surprise and a good way to start the week. She told me about... Read More

The End of Polite Conversation? Part One

This is part one of a two-part series. Click here for the conclusion. On February 26, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer vetoed a bill that would have made it legal for businesses to discriminate against LGBT... Read More

Motherless Child

An abscess in the tooth or colon curls one inward as salt poured upon a snail. And so does grief; grief is an oozing, boiling abscess of absence. I was eight thousand miles away in... Read More

Smile, You’re Beautiful

This afternoon a student passed me, grinning. She’d just visited the eastern-most toilet stall in the “senior” bathroom. The room is decrepit, the soap dispenser is often empty, and the stall doors don’t latch. But... Read More

The Lives of Others

Until I met a young woman from Kabul, Afghanistan, named Tabasum, I’d nearly given up on finding my cause. My only child, Lili, had just left for college, and I felt at a loss with... Read More