With more good friends in my lifetime than any 10 men deserve, Caesar was my best. This morning, I freed his spirit from his cancer-riddled body. Unwittingly at the time, I cast his memory into future generations by including him in two of my novels. When people ask me which of my books I like […]
Category Archives: Heroes
For my father …
The Greatness of a Nation
A few weeks ago as my friend Ch**k was driving down the road chatting with me on his cell phone (VERY safely I must emphasize [and I have disguised his name so he will not get in trouble for driving and talking at the same time]), he was unable to avoid a small Arizona ground […]
Jesus and the Disinherited
I never knew who Howard Thurman was until January 2014. I know it was in January because that is when I posted “A Place for Angels,” a post about Howard Thurman that was well received. I believe in angels just like I believe dog is man’s best friend. That’s reality. I finished Thurman’s book Jesus […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
“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 […]
Chief Joseph
In 1879, Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé Indians traveled to Washington, D.C. and met with President Rutherford B. Hayes and other government leaders to plead his case to return his tribe – displaced from the Northwest to Oklahoma’s Indian Territory – to their original home in Oregon. Chief Joseph was known as a skilled […]
Instructions: How to Become a Hero
I do not believe I was ever required to read Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If.” Perhaps better known for his books Kim, Captains Courageous, Gunga Din, The Man Who Would Be King and The Jungle Book among others, Kipling penned “If” in 1895. I first read the poem on a rainy afternoon in the ’60’s sitting […]