The great thing about riding the bus is having no distractions, and thus, plenty of time to think. This is also the problem with riding the bus: Having plenty of time to think. If you're prone to rumination like me, sometimes thinking isn't the best idea. But every so often, I decide to put down …
The power of food
This is how unconscious I am about the eating of food: It is Ash Wednesday, a day of fasting for Catholics, a fact I reminded myself of multiple times this morning when packing to head home from the conference I was at. I've also reminded myself that my 40-day sacrifice centers around giving up certain …
Who is in your stable?
Pope Francis is not the first pope to speak of the Church's preferential option for the poor. Neither is he the first to criticize unbridled capitalism or critique harshly the belief in trickle-down economics. But his actions toward the poor and disenfranchised make Church teaching about the least of these much, much harder to ignore. …
Penn State scandal an indictment on a generation? Not quite.
There's no lack of opinion about the sex abuse scandal surrounding the football program at Penn State. The best have focused on the fact that college sports, particularly football, are abusive in their very nature, taking advantage of young people while paying 7-figure salaries to coaches. On the other hand, we have this post, where …
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Standing up for education at a Sun Tran Transit Center
File this under not being able to leave the job at the office: The kid slouched up to me at the Tohono Transit Center, all baggy basketball pants, spiked hair and pensive teenager face, asking to borrow my phone. I had already done my good deed for the day - giving $1 extra to the …
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Cyberbullying, gay bashing, and parental to-dos
There are certain things that I cannot wrap my mind around, no matter how hard I try, and believe me, I do try. I struggle mightily to see all sides of an issue, but sometimes, it turns out there is only one side: the right one. When children are killing themselves, something has gone terribly, …
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Living your faith in a down economy
I recently read a quote from Daniel Berrigan, an 89-year-old Jesuit priest and long-time peace activist best known for his unwavering opposition to the School of the Americas, currently known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The quote really struck me as profound, and then last night I heard a sermon about putting …
If you want a happy relationship, don't believe the movies
I've said it before, and discovered on my plane trip home last week that the Daily Mail agrees: Romantic comedies tend to lead to disappointment in real-life relationships. Some TC.com readers may have already seen the Daily Mail piece, which reports on studies about the connection between romantic comedies and unhappy real-life relationships, but in …
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Parenting in France and Germany vs the USA
One of the first things we noticed during our recent trip to France and Germany was that parents there don't yell at their children. Neither do they turn them over to be entertained and occupied by handheld devices when out in public, nor scold them for wandering off - which little kids in France and …
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Why you should unplug – and unplug your kids, as well
The New York Times has a huge article today on the damage technology is doing to our brains. Yes, there are many good things about technology (I'm blogging, aren't I?), but the research is conclusive now that multitasking makes us dumber, not smarter, and that the addictive affect of being plugged in is quite real …
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Renee Wrote This 