THE TRIQUETRA OF LIFE: Wisdom, Wealth, and Wellness

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  • Today’s Rip Van Winkle

    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 worrisome — dare I say disturbing — to oldsters like me who daily face the challenge of new-fangled gadgets.

  • Double Cheeseburger

    Trappist monks are remarkably long-lived and free of disease. Their abstemious fare, along with prayer, exercise, and fresh air, lengthens their lives through avoidance of chronic disease. In history many great epidemics and plagues that ravaged the neighboring countryside were stopped at the gates of an abbey (see A Popular History of the Catholic Church…

  • Behavior Modification

    The one day I came late, she had instructed the class to negatively respond to my questions, so that I would gradually seat myself closer and closer to the exit. It worked too well.

  • Pet Idolatry

    Pets don’t go to heaven.

  • My Ticket to Heaven

    I pondered its unworldly message, encouraging the terminally ill to avoid treatment, to welcome an early death so as not to threaten entry into heaven by lingering here on Earth. Catholic philosophy can certainly seem radical and irrational.

  • Our Declining Empire

    Basic human nature tends to excess indulgence, moral apathy, and a foolish lolerance of incompetence.

  • Castrati

    Centuries ago in Europe, boys had the option of becoming permanent choir singers by castration.The training of these boys was as rigorous as a military academy.

  • Secret Stash

    Secret giving can be difficult. One reason is that we crave recognition for all our good deeds. When we receive some ribbon or award, we cling to that fleeting honor as if it were crediting us with eternal life. Then we display it for all the world to see, counting on a nod or smile…

  • General Lee Look-Alike

    No telling what happens when folks realize how great they are deep down inside.

  • Death Is Not What It Seems

    Her father’s distress was palpable as he gripped my arm. His chief concern was if she’d go to hell. And I worried because what I’d said to her may have prompted her suicide.