My father was a member of what has come to be known as “The Greatest Generation.” Born in 1918 into a large Catholic family in central Minnesota, he had four sisters and was the eldest of four boys. Dad grew up on a small farm and, as the oldest son, he bore the brunt of…

When I was a young professional woman, I recognized that a husband and children would fulfill me. I desired a committed relationship and the opportunity to parent. I had matured within a society that taught me self-reliance and independence at the cost of relationship and mutual support, but I recognized value in forming a partnership,…

The young men and women arrived for their debate dressed in jackets, slacks, and skirts. They wanted to look the part, as a strategy for winning. This was to be their very first debate in their weekly homeschool co-op class day. The subject was a sobering one: The federal government should discontinue capital punishment. Jane,…

Night. Somewhere in Northern Europe. (8,000 B.C.) Picture a cave with a fire burning just outside its mouth. Prehistoric men, women, and children are seated on the cave floor, every face alit with awe and wonder, under the spell of a master storyteller. Before them, an elder, dressed in animal skins and a headdress with…

All over the world, people have the sense that something has gone wrong. Our neighborhoods are no longer safe. Children aren’t learning the skills they need for life in school; instead they are taught to judge everyone by their race or gender. The jobs we thought we would have for decades disappear with little warning,…