It is my Christmas ritual to share this piece every year. Maybe you can read it to a child… maybe you will just read it to yourself. I hope you read it, enjoy it and find value in it … Most people — certainly those younger than 60 — may only know “Ben-Hur” as a […]
Author Archives: tVM
The War Prayer
I may have mentioned I have been reading an excellent volume, The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart: Poems for Men. I come upon poem after poem that demands and commands my attention. I so much like this book that I purchased four copies, one for each son and one for my son-in-law. Last […]
Thanksgiving
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, a day which was first declared a federal holiday in 1863 in the midst of the War Between the States by President Abraham Lincoln. It pains me to think that 150 years later, it is more often referred to as the day before black Friday. The year has been a challenging […]
When You’re Feeling Like George Bailey
“I had the blues ’cause I had no shoes until I met a man on the street who had no feet.” When my kids were growing up, that is how I would teach them to respond to even their legitimate woes: someone is always in a more dire strait. Sometimes, however, a person gets the […]
My Three Sons
In 1979, my wife gave birth to our second child, a girl. I was shocked that a female could issue from my loins. Such was the limited vision of the world that I had those many years ago. I wanted to name her ‘Jean Marie,’ Jean for me and Marie for her mother, but friends […]
David Walsh McGrath, Smiling Hero for All Time
Just last week at Friday Mass, we read all about friends from the Book of Sirach [6:5 – 18]. “A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price…..” I have been blessed with many people I call ‘friend.’ The two funniest men I know […]
Uncivilized
Galena, Alaska sits on the north bank of the Yukon River on the 64th N parallel, just two parallels shy of the Arctic Circle. Flying out of Galena’s now inactive Air Station in the summer of 1973 in my T-33, I once saw the sun set and rise within a 15-minute stretch. As I climbed […]
A Reflection on Pope Francis
I made my first trip to Argentina in 1990. Although I took one year of Spanish in college in 1967, I was far from fluent, so I carried a small pocket dictionary. After a 15-hour flight from St. Louis through Miami, my clothes were quite wrinkled. The first word I learned from that dictionary was […]
Mitakuye Oyasin
Mrs. tVM and I have the granddaughters — 2 and 5 — here this week until Saturday. This afternoon, young Xylia, 5-years-old said, “Dziadek — she calls me ‘Dziadek’ which is Grandfather in Polish — I think there is a hummingbird in the pool.” Sure enough, the gentle soul floated lifelessly on the surface. I […]
Martin Sheen: A Hero who Broke Through
Yesterday morning as I waited in the foyer of an assisted living facility, I glanced at a basket filled with old magazines. The magazine on top of the pile was the AARP magazine. I am not an “AARP guy,” but the cover picture was a picture of a smiling Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez, better known […]