I have a special place in my heart for my 2011 book Tobit and the Hoodoo Man. The book is about believing even in the most hopeless of circumstances, a situation most of us might confront at some point in our lives. The story I fashioned first occurred to me in 2010 when I read …
Category Archives: Mind
How Are You Doing?
When asked ‘How are you doing?’ I’m prepared with three well-rehearsed responses. Which one escapes my lips is a crap shoot on any given day. “I’m fine.” – I discovered Etty Hillesum years ago as I researched my Holocaust novel The Hamsa. My cousin Mary Ann from Indiana suggested I read the diary Ms. Hillesum wrote …
It IS a Wonderful Life
For 48 years, Mrs. tVM and I have watched the film “It’s a Wonderful Life” every Christmas season. When we first viewed it in 1974, the film was a mere 27 years old. That would be like watching “Braveheart” today; it doesn’t seem that long ago. As we watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” last night, …
Looking Forward to 2023
In 2023, we enter our 13th year publishing the Vitruvian Man website, and we remain committed to the two most important stories in all of literature: the story of the good Samaritan and the story of the adulterous woman. We are obligated to be our brother’s keeper to ensure that all life matters. We must …
Light a Candle
As time passes, I become more grateful for the many blessings bestowed upon me through the grace of God. Many of those blessings come from people, some I know, others may be strangers, but their positive effect on my life is undeniable… like the grace of God. Ten years ago, a young attorney friend who …
The Children Need Your Help
After a brutal summer characterized by unparalleled gang violence and delays mandated by the Haitian Ministry of Education, we opened the doors to the Barefoot School in Cité Soleil, Haiti last week. This will be our second scholastic year. Our relationship with the Guepard Boxing Club of Cité Soleil [GBCCS] which operates the school goes …
The Closing Window
Earlier this week, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) issued its 13th edition of the Emissions Gap Report which provides a science-based assessment of the gap between commitments made by governments to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and those levels needed to achieve global temperature targets under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change …
The Veil of Heaven
One of the most beautiful books I have read is Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace by Kent Nerburn (1999). In his introduction, Mr. Nerburn writes, “There is a story told by some of the Native American people about the stars in the midnight sky. Each star, they say, is a hole pierced in …
Season Change
We faced many challenges on many fronts this summer that affected our work on our Haiti agriculture project in Arizona. The reasons are unimportant. The fact is, after planting 2,400 linear feet by the end of May with Armenian cucumbers to okra to squash to melons, and everything in between, we realized zero harvest excluding …
Doing the Right Thing
Over a month ago, we posted that the Haitian Ministry of Education had delayed the September 3 school opening to October 3. October 3rd has come and gone. Schools remain closed. Speaking to the United Nations Security Council yesterday, October 17, the Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Victor Généus opened his remarks by stating, …