A Beacon of Light

“Mix a little foolishness with your serious plans. It is lovely to be silly at the right moment.”~ Horace The afternoon began with a casual meeting with friends. Kathy and I got together with Tim and his wife Mary Ann at the Starbucks at Lincoln Avenue and Minnesota in the Willow Glen area of San José. We had…

“You cannot live a perfect day  without doing something for someone  who will never be able to repay you.” ~ John Wooden Michael Pelikan was a student at Saint Lawrence Academy when I first started working there in 1984. I never taught him, but I knew him quite well. His parents were the couple who led…

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ~ Maya Angelou Dad is now available on Amazon, and just in time for Father’s Day 2023. There is a sense of accomplishment in having published four books. To the best of my knowledge, none of the books are being considered for prizes in literature,…

“This is the art of the soul: to harvest your deeper life from all the seasons of your experience.”~ John O’Donohue There’s a cute little saying: “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why we call it ‘the present.’” Living in the present is what we are all called to do, yet so…

“There’s more to life than basketball. The most important thing is your family and taking care of each other and loving each other no matter what.”~ Steph Curry I must begin tonight’s blog post with an admission: I am not a fan of professional basketball. I could write at length about the reasons for my disillusionment with the…

“Your name is the most important thing you own. Don’t ever do anything to disgrace or cheapen it.”~ Ben Hogan In early May 1986, Kathy and I experienced the birth of our first son. We named him Thomas. My paternal grandfather’s name was Thomas. My father’s name was Thomas. My brother’s name is Thomas. And one of Kathy’s…

“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us.”~ Umberto Eco In the right-hand photo above, you’ll see a yellow Post-It note with the date May 15. I placed that note prominently at my desk two months ago. I had an idea for another…

“No one you love is ever truly lost.” ~ Ernest Hemingway When I received my class rosters prior to the first day of teaching at St. Augustine’s College in Nassau, I had no idea that one of the students on those lists would become a lifelong friend. Kim Brohier was in one of my 10th grade classes.…

“Constant attention by a good nursemay be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.” ~ Dag Hammarskjöld Other than the time of my birth, I’ve been fortunate to have avoided frequent hospital stays. In my early elementary school years, I had my tonsils removed at Saint Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco. In the pediatric…

“A sense of humor is the ability  to understand a joke  — and that the joke is oneself.”  ~ Clifton Paul Fadiman On a sunny San Francisco day in the early 1970s, one of my best high school buddies and I went for a bike ride. I had purchased a Raleigh Grand Prix 10-speed touring…