Selving: Let mystery remain

The act of selving is poet Gerard Manley Hopkins' idea of (and invented word for) the crucial human act of becoming one's self. My brother George and I came to realize over the decades that although we are brothers we found our true selves on different paths.

St. Valentines Day

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February 14 is a unique day in American culture - one day a year, we are urged to love someone else besides ourselves (and to buy a card to declare our unmistakable intentions!)

Super Bowl Sunday

In The Christian Century magazine (1974) I argued that American football, this great national sport which claims the devotion of a significant percentage of our population, mirrors in a ritual way some of the worst characteristics of our culture.

A Secret Voice

My book Interbeing contains a section of poems to my younger brother, George, who died in 2019, and now that I myself am in my tenth decade these poems take on a special resonance.

George, ti voglio bene

On the whole, our family interactions would never qualify for a Dr. Phil manual of the successful unit. Even the experts haven’t figured out the intricacies of this interplay. Yet out of this textbook case of wrong moves came two reasonably healthy sons, each carrying his own wounds from childhood in different ways.