Mark's Blog
Fear, Trauma, and Guns
Last week I was in Washington DC with a group of bishops, clergy and laypeople to witness and strategize about our work in gun violence prevention (referred to as GVP). Organized by Bishops United Against Gun Violence, which I helped form after the Newtown,...
The Challenges of Freedom
Freedom. The bedrock of the American experiment. It is protected in the first amendment of the Bill of Rights, adopted in 1791: freedom to exercise one’s religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of the right to petition the...
Playing Chicken is No Game
When we were kids, we occasionally played a game of chicken on our bikes. Two of us would ride toward each other – as fast as we could, and the one who veered off at the last minute was identified – no, ridiculed, as a chicken. A real wuss. A designation no one...
The Challenge of Challenging Bad Behavior
It was two a.m. when I was awakened by a loud conversation taking place in the next campsite at a state campground in southern Vermont. After fifteen minutes of being forced to listen to my neighbors argue about various issues in their relationship, I decided to pay...
Confronting Violence with Nonviolence
I cut across the edge of my next-door neighbor’s newly seeded front lawn, on my way to cross the street to see a friend. I was about nine years old. About twenty feet into my trespass, the father of the family charged out of his house: “If you don’t get off my...
Molting our Shells into Bardo
Bardo is a Tibetan Buddhist term. It refers to the space between birth and rebirth, a space marked by vulnerability, in that one does know for certain what is coming next. It can also be a time for growth. I often liken bardo to the period of time when lobsters...
Buried in the National Anthem
“No refuge could save the hireling and slave…” A poetic phrase, embedded in perhaps the most well-known tune in America: The Star-Spangled Banner. We know the tune and have memorized the words. We sing it before ball games, at the openings of town meetings, and at...
The Power of Force and the Power of Love
“He should resign”, I proclaimed – loudly, in the hallway of the church where I served. It was a proclamation I issued with an energy and conviction that surprised me. And which, no doubt, surprised the people who heard me. I had been a strong supporter of...
Fear, Gun Violence and Hospitality
"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." So wrote Julian of Norwich in the mid 14th century from her tiny cell which was attached to the Norwich Cathedral in England. Yet for the city, and for Julian, all was not well. The...