Atlanta, GA February 29, 2020 Thirty days hath September, April, June, November. Of the rest, I can’t remember. Except February, which hath 28. Plus, every four years, today’s date. Life is too short to sweat the small stuff…but too long not to. And this year is even longer! We are given an extra day. But […]
Atlanta, GA February 22, 2020 Thirty years ago next month, I graduated from college. During the ensuing months and years, most of my friends walked across similar stages, and framed their own diplomas. New careers started, graduate degrees were pursued, and bar bills piled up. Then, wedding announcements began to roll in. Several times a […]
Last week, as I mined the archives, I continued to find older deposits. Some are of pretty low-grade ore. The following sample was written for The University of San Francisco Business Journal in 1995. By John D. Breen – San Francisco, CA October 11, 1995 Communication is to human interrelations as breathing is to life: not the […]
Tampa, FL* December 25, 2019 We’ve reflected before on Chesterton’s observation that there are two ways of getting home. One is to stay there. The other is to wander the world till we return to our original place. In some sense, we have done both. We left home three and a half decades ago. And […]
Atlanta, GA October 14, 2019 Most know me as one who reads obscure history, watches classic movies, subsists on red wine, and writes pretentious emails. A guy who likes his political theory, his philosophic speculations, and his economic treatises like he likes his popular music and his Catholic liturgy: published before 1970. Then again, who […]
Columbus, OHSeptember 13, 2019 Today, like a New England pond on a crisp fall day, we have a moment to reflect. Most of you, assuming you actually stoop to read this drivel…must wonder why I bother to write it. Let’s consider potential motives. Perhaps as an escape from stale hotel lobbies, noisy airport lounges, or […]
Atlanta, GA August 10, 2019 I cannot live without books. – Thomas Jefferson School is back. Last week David started his first year of high school, Alexander his last. The air, if not the calendar, carries a slight semblance of the season associated with a return to campus. Among the more amazing events in a […]
Atlanta, GAJanuary 1, 2019 We look back at 2018 with apprehension and a whiff of disdain, but only briefly…like glancing over our shoulder to change lanes in heavy traffic…before hitting the gas and leaving it in the dust. Not that 2018 was without it’s moments. Amid the squalls, buoyant waves periodically raised us from an […]
Atlanta, GA May 29, 2018 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.– Matthew 5:4 On this 150th Memorial Day we decorate the graves, commemorate the dead, and contemplate the stupendous waste in lives and treasure that a century-and-a-half of aggressive foreign intervention has wrought. Since Appomattox, wars deprived over half a million […]
Charleston, SC April 2, 2018 Is the Pope Catholic? Much like that other Socratic inquiry, “Does a bear sh*t in the woods?”, this retort was till recently a stock affirmation of a blatantly obvious question or assertion. It is now a genuine concern… …particularly after the ostensible successor to St Peter reputedly (on Maundy Thursday, […]