After my beloved wife and daughter, one of the people who has most helped me to survive the madness of this past year is Melissa Harrison. Although we’ve never met in person, hearing her gentle and soothing voice asking me “Hi, how’re you doing?” at the beginning of each episode of her superb “The Stubborn Light of Things” podcast has more times than I can recall helped me to pick up and carry on in the face of all that was wearing me down.
A famous philosopher once said “If you only have one child, you don’t have children.” More than a grammatically clever way of stating an obvious fact, to parents this seemingly simple declaration summarizes a vast wealth of wisdom.
Every time I travel abroad, I find that I return having learned something new. Such is the case with my recently concluded visit to the Central American nation of Panama for a photographic expedition.
Once our elected officials find themselves “inside the beltway” among the grand marble buildings that line the wide well-manicured avenues of our nation’s capital, the intoxicating effects of power and influence take hold quickly.