The Narthex

Sometimes I feel like Rip van Winkle waking from a 20-year sleep to find drastic changes, not only social but technological as well. Our standard of living has improved more in the last 100 years than in all recorded history. Such rapid innovation is startling and wondrous. But it’s also…

I went alone for a long walk around my neighborhood after California’s self-quarantine advisory. A bit fatigued, I sat to rest on a bus-stop metal bench, the kind with handles between the seats. The traffic at this local intersection was now a tenth of the usual rush hour traffic. A…

During a homily, the priest lifted our bored faces by boldly declaring, "So not everyone’s going to heaven.” A matronly woman sitting next to me looked up for a moment from thumbing her cell phone. Somehow assured that her Judgment Day was not imminent, she then returned to marking the…

A young boy in my neighborhood walked up to me, spotting something in my hand. “What’s that?” he asked. William was a mixed-race child with handsome features. He was fatherless, so I once helped him fix his trainer bike. “It’s a chrysalis, I told him. “Soon the shell will split…

The Roman Empire lasted a long time despite its many emperors who were egomaniacs or just plain crazy. Nero may be the foremost example. What caused Rome's decline and fall was not only incompetent emperors, barbarian border enemies, or mass dementia from lead water pipes. The underlying reasons were more…

The ancient use of herbs for medicinal purposes is well known. Coca leaves are still chewed by Peruvian natives in the High Andes to prevent altitude sickness. Poppy flowers yield opiates for pain relief. Curcumin research has shown it can shrink cancerous tumors even in the brain. Coca-cola capitalized on…

Chinese parents impose excessive scholastic demands on their children, who become obsessed to the point of suicide if they fail to pass a course of study. In China, suicide is the fifth leading cause of death and accounts for over 25% of all suicides worldwide. Christians are only 2% of…

They say Ken died of a heart attack working hard at what he loved, construction management. I had attended his Catholic marriage and recall the happy couple leaving the wedding reception, then standing together waiting in the hotel lobby to take the elevator to a honeymoon suite. But back then…

Back in the 1960s, the Church banned dirty movies, deeming them a threat to the functional norms of civilization. Sex scenes were few, if any, and relegated to cloaked suggestives in the golden era of Ben Hur, Exodus, and Magnificent Obsession. As Hollywood norms changed, I would fast-forward love-making scenes…

In the early 1970s, I joined a singles’ mixer that took a charter bus to a hotel in Rosarito Beach, Mexico. About fifty of us worked on suntans around the pool enclave shielded from offshore winds by a glass barrier. Laughter, mixed with nonstop chatter, filled the air as alert…

We visited the Hawaiian Islands in 1987 and took a tour of Lahaina, the former royal capital on Maui. In that small town, the activity was along Front Street lined with stores and restaurants, and packed with tourists. In the middle of the historic district, Banyan Court Park featured an…

Some years ago I visited the Fleet Space Theatre in Balboa Park where an exhibit in its science museum seemed to fascinate a crowd of onlookers. I drew close to read a placard claiming this intriguing treasure was from some Oriental dynasty, thousands of years old.  It was a simple…

Jack, a member of our writing group, invited us to an appetizer party one afternoon after Christmas. On arriving, I rang the doorbell but heard no sound and saw only one car parked outside. I rang the bell again, then phoned to ask if I had the wrong time and…

Though using a wide variety of clever devices daily, few of us know how they work. Our roles in society are so specialized, and our cars and computers so sophisticated that most of us do not understand how they operate and can not fix them. All that matters to us…

At 9:00 on Saturday morning, cars are not jammed in the parking lot and only a few customers cruise the aisles of employee-owned WinCo's supermarket. At that early hour, it takes me about 30 minutes to finish my usual shopping list, with an average bill of $50 a week for…