Mark's Blog

Every year at this time the planet gives the northern hemisphere a promise: that the days will get shorter, culminating at the winter solstice, December 21.  And from that darkest day, the promise continued: every day thereafter would provide a little more light.  For...

To Tell the Truth was a popular TV game show that ran from 1956-1968, and then from 1969-1978. It had a long run.  I watched it regularly as a boy.  The show involved three contestants, each of whom would introduce themselves as the same person:  “I am Joe Miller”...

Fight or flight is a physiological response that occurs when we find ourelves in acute stress.  The reaction is triggered by the release of hormones that prepare the body to physically take on a threat or to run away.  Most of us know the fight or flight impulse,...

I am so grateful for the Thanksgiving holiday.  It provides a much-needed break in the relentless pace of the calendar.  Thanksgiving gives us a chance to rest and recollect.   It encourages gathering – loved ones, yes, but also to gather together moments and memories...

I received early admission into the cultural elite when I was accepted by early decision at Amherst College in November, 1968.  I had a slim awareness that I came from a community and family of some privilege, as did a majority of my Amherst classmates; but I was...

Hope is a gift.  A precious gift that was planted in each and every one of us when we were born into the world as imago Dei.  We bear God’s image, and that image features essential ingredients of the divine:   hope, love, along with the capacity for kindness and...

Like many, I am flooded with feelings of disappointment, confusion and helplessness in the wake of Donald Trump’s election.  I accept his election, but I am having a hard time accepting this swirl of sadness, and the fact that America is different than I thought it...

It was the 10th anniversary of 9/11.  I went to Penn Station in Newark early in the morning, located just a few blocks from the office where I served as bishop.  I carried a sign,  “Blessings Offered on the Anniversary of 9/11”.  I stood next to a wall in the...

"Mine is bigger than yours" is both a verbal statement and a visible sign of male virility.  The boasting begins in junior high school when locker rooms become salons for trash talk about size — of one’s ego, performance, or body.  For some, boys only enclaves were...