“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 […]
Author Archives: tVM
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 […]
tVM 2012 Summary
As 2012 draws to a close, I would like to thank all of our readers who motivate me to continue throwing starfish back into the ocean. Here is a snapshot of The Vitruvian Man’s website performance during the previous 12 months. This year, the site generated nearly 13,000 page views; that’s up from 8,500 a […]
The Star, an excerpt
I invite all subscribes and readers of The Vitruvian Man to download an excerpt I have made available from my working manuscript, The Exile of Gaspar. I have titled the excerpt “The Star.” You can download the excerpt as a PDF document or as an EBook for your Kindle. Details are available at ESKraay Online.
“I’ll Stand With You.”
Yesterday, October 16 marks the 44th anniversary of one of the most memorable events at any modern Olympic Games. On October 16, 1968, silver medalist Peter Norman joined American gold medalist Tommie Smith – who had just become the first human to break the 20-second barrier in the 200-meter dash – and bronze medalist John […]