RMDell'Orfano

Finding True Freedom

We are left to fight our battles alone, in the quiet corners of ordinary lives, yearning for a freedom we cannot quite locate or achieve.

Death and Deportation

Pope Leo XIV has declared that the deportation of illegal immigrants and the death penalty are inhuman.

The Masquerade of Life

All the world’s a masquerade, where one man in his time plays many parts, and I had learned how to slip past its stopgates unnoticed.

We Don’t Take Your Kind.

At the gates of Andover Academy, I learned that pedigree alone—not ambition, not money, not merit—decided who entered, and who was turned away.

Foreshadowed Arc

The Upham House offered a glimpse of my life’s quest, a foreshadowing of the perilous path I faced—in that daunting frontier of fear, faith, and unseen mystery mirrored in its weary walls.

The Doomscrolling Bomb:

Doomscrolling is the slot machine in your pocket—random rewards keep you hooked. Like Skinner’s pigeons, most don’t even notice the cage.

The rustling leaves in a soft breeze spoke. A cool draft wrapped my arms while heat flushed my face. I heard the rasp of insects in the grass, the sharp peck of a robin tugging a worm. Every sound sharpened until the whole yard was alive.

The Rock of Ages

3. Among broken pedestals on Mt. Hood, I sensed for the first time that life’s story stretched far beyond my own—a childhood glimpse of eternity.

Spooky Faith

“Science mocks faith. Religion pretends it. Yet both kneel before the same altar, worshipping an Unknown God. From Euler’s constants to Einstein’s ‘spooky action,’ this essay explores how science is steeped in sacraments, martyrs, and hidden faith.”

First Holy Communion:

When my dog vanished, I learned how love can disappear without warning; years later, I found a presence that never did.