Like many parents, I’ve been around youth sports for years and I loved watching my children play. It was great when we came home with a win and disappointing when we didn’t. But the point of the game was to learn sportsmanship, learn the game, to exercise, and to have fun. In all of those years of youth athletics, very few of the children who played on teams with my kids went on to receive scholarships in college for their sports and none of them, as far as I know, became professional athletes.  Read More»

The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December has spurred an international debate on guns and their availability in the United States. The debate has raged the past few weeks over guns, the second amendment to the Constitution, and political agendas. 

I’ve followed a number of discussions ranging from political commentary, to editorials, to professional clinical discussion boards on the issue and there is no doubt that our country is deeply divided on this issue.  Read More»

In his fascinating book “The Time Machine,” H.G. Wells’ character travels to a place in the future where a group of people called the Eloi live in a seemingly perfect setting. For the most part, they live a carefree life, but each night creatures called the Morlocks, come from underground and steal away with several Eloi and eat them. Yet the Eloi never mention the Morlocks. The Eloi behave as if ignoring the obvious danger of the Morlocks will keep them safe.  Read More»

A new mother wrote to me wondering what she could do to protect her child from abduction and/or sexual perpetrators. Sadly, many good parents find their children victim to sexual perpetrators regardless of their best efforts. But the good news is that many tragedies that befall families are preventable.  Read More»

In 1954, Robert Holmes was only 13 years old when his mother took him to a local swimming pool in Edison, New Jersey.  As a black boy in a segregated world, attendants refused him entry and called the police.  His mother stood firm.  She looked at her young teen and said, “Son, climb under the turnstile.”  Holmes later said he was more afraid of his mother than the police, so he obeyed her and climbed under. Read More»

Tears trickled down my daughter’s face. She stood in front of me, shoulders slumped and her head down, as she admitted to something that I already knew she had done. The admission was from the heart and it wasn’t coerced. She was truly penitent. That little nine-year-old is an adult now, but I still remember my struggle as I tried to decide what to do. She was clearly wrong in what she had done and I had clarified a potential penalty ahead of time. The consequences were clear and she made a poor choice. My dilemma – should I do what I said I would do or had she learned her lesson already? Read More»

I turned 50 this year. It seems that it was just a few years ago when I was in grammar school. Now things from my childhood are on the History Channel and I know far more people in the “Deaths” section in my college alumni newspaper than I do from the “Births and Weddings” section.  Read More»

The protests against corporations that began in New York over a month ago have spread around the world.  I’ve listened to protester comments to journalists about their expectations and their comments are reflected in a conversation I had with one of my students just a few days ago.

This young woman, sympathetic to the protesters, spoke to me about the need for government to “put a stop to corporate profits.”  She also told me that people had the responsibility to take care of others in the country, that it was the most compassionate thing to do, and that the government should enforce it.  Read More»

Most of us have been touched by the loss of a baby – either our own or the baby of someone close to us. It is far more common than you might think. In fact, as many as 70 percent of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. That is a staggeringly high number, but fortunately most of those miscarriages happen before the woman even knows she is pregnant. Many of them are pregnancies that end practically before they get started. Read More»

If you are a regular reader of this column or if you happen to know me, you won’t believe what I’m about to tell you. You won’t be surprised that in my home I don’t have cable or satellite television, and I haven’t watched a television series in almost 20 years. I don’t text, I don’t play video games, and I rarely recreationally surf the web or use YouTube. I write letters on paper and send them in the US Mail and my children grew up with limited exposure to the television and limited computer use. Read More»