Mark's Blog

Jonathan Ross has expressed that he felt his life was in imminent danger when he fired three shots through a windshield that took the life of Renee Nicole Good.  Millions of people, from the President on down, have agreed with Ross’ split-second decision to eliminate...

Instant gratification. It is an impulse that at times can take on an almost religious fervor in the pursuit of fulfilling an immediate desire. Little, if any thought, is given to the implications or consequences of satisfying the desire; and invariably strategy is...

Merry Christmas. For generations “Merry Christmas” has been a time-honored greeting. In recent years “Merry Christmas” has fallen out of favor in some quarters because it was felt to be less of a greeting and more of a claim of Christian hegemony that disregarded or...

“See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”, is an English translation of an ancient 5h century BCE Confucian proverb. It is visually depicted on a carving above the entrance to the 17th century Tosho-gu shrine in Nikko, Japan, consisting of three monkeys who, in turn,...

We are pursued by darkness. Literally. Darkness comes earlier each day in the northern hemisphere, culminating on December 21, the shortest day of the year. The deepening darkness can do a number on our psyches: seasonal affective disorder –also known by the apt...

It is a memory that keep popping up. After my sophomore year in college in 1971, I signed on to be a door-to-door book salesman with the Southwestern Company based in Nashville Tennessee. Originally a company that sold bibles, it had recently evolved into selling...

“…Trumpism is a thoroughly religious movement”, David French wrote in a November 16 op-ed in the New York Times. A self-described evangelical Christian, French went on to say that since Trumpism is a religious phenomenon, it requires a religious answer. I agree. And...

A national day of Thanksgiving was first declared by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, to be observed at the end of the harvest season, in late November. Over the decades the date moved around several times, and in 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt issued a...