A Beacon of Light

“You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.”George Burns I’m home. Having spent the past three weeks walking the streets of Nassau, talking with friends from St. Augustine’s College, and reminiscing about a one-year experience I had more than fifty years ago, I’m grateful to be back in the Bay Area. I thoroughly enjoyed…

“Maybe that’s the  best part of going  away for a vacation —  coming home again.”   Madeline L’Engle This morning, I’m packing-up to go home. This cozy condominium cottage has been my home for the past three weeks. While it is privately owned, it is located in the midst of three residential rental communities — Colony…

“Behind every  successful manthere is a woman.”   Mark Twain For the past three weeks, I have had the pleasure of meeting up with quite a few of my former students. The youngest of them are now 62 years of age. Doing the book signing events at the Logos Book Store on Saturday and at Saint…

“I regarded home as  a place I left behind  in order to come back  to it afterward.”   Ernest Hemingway Over the past fifty years, whenever I’ve returned to Nassau for a visit, I’ve always had a sense that I’m home. This is even more true when I visit the campus of Saint Augustine’s College. Any…

“A town isn’t a  town without  a bookstore.”   Neil Gaiman Nassau has a bookstore. Actually, it has a number of bookstores, but Logos Book Store, located in the Harbor Bay Shopping Center on East Bay Street, is considered to be the best. This will be the venue for my book signing event this afternoon. Ricardo,…

“He should first  show them in deeds  rather than words  all that is good and holy.” Rule of Saint Benedict Father Elias Achatz, O.S.B. was born and raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He entered the Benedictine Order at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. Much to his surprise, he was assigned to live at Saint…

“Good manners are  just a way of showing  other people that we  have respect for them.”   Bill Kelly When I stopped by the Saint Augustine’s campus on Tuesday afternoon, I found myself sitting in the reception area of the main office for about fifteen minutes waiting for the last period of the day to end.…

“Live so that when your  children think of fairness,  caring, and integrity,  they think of you.”  H. Jackson Brown, Jr. There’s not a whole lot more I can say about Lou Adderley than I said in my book, A Bahamian Odyssey. On the dedication page, I wrote: “It is an honor for me to dedicate this…

“There is no better  investment a nation  can make than  education.”   Steve Nguyen Much has changed at Saint Augustine’s since 1975. Most notably, the monastery has closed. No longer do monks live in the facility or work at the school. The monastery property is now owned by the Archdiocese of Nassau. From what I’ve heard,…