Growing up my Dad always made a point of telling us that none of us are adopted. When it comes to me and my Mom, he really could have saved his breath.  I look just like her.  We are very similar in other ways too. I know that I get my love of words and my passion for word-play from my Mom.  We like books and crossword puzzles and silly poems...

I was both surprised and deeply saddened by a video on CNN this morning that asked “Has Porn Hijacked Sexuality?” The video shows an interview between CNN anchor John Roberts and author and sociologist Gail Dines.  Dines is the author of the book Pornland which looks at the effect of pornography on people’s view sex and even of their own bodies. The...

From a very, very young age we’re taught that choices are important. Whether it’s deciding what color shirt to wear, or what to major in in college, choices, we’re told will have a profound impact not just on what we do but on who we are. Ask any two year old to put on a pair of shoes without consulting them and you’ll get a quick lesson...

We’ve all heard the stat that 50% of marriages end in divorce. It’s a horrible number, so much heartache in that one statistic.  But researchers are now saying that there’s more reason to hope.  Walking down the aisle doesn’t have to feel like flipping a coin. Jennifer Baker, the researcher who is credited, erroneously she claims, with...

We’ve all had moments when we’ve wished the ground would open up and swallow us. For one family in Quebec that’s exactly what happened.  According to reports on CNN.com a 500 yard sinkhole opened up threatening five homes in the town of Saint-Jude.  One home was sucked into the hole and a family of five lost their lives.  They were in the...

My younger brother, Dave,  is very conscious of the world around him and the way that he interacts with the people and resources in that world.  For years he and his wife kept a signed pinned to the back of their front door that read “Buy Less Stuff”.  When did little brothers get so smart? Recently he showed me a video by The Story of...

In the classic children’s story Anne of Green Gables, the heroine poetically claims that “tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it.”  It is a lovely idea but what happens when you know that today’s mistakes are going to still be waiting for you in the morning? Each day does offer a clean start, but our problems don’t disappear like...