Category: Autobio

• Beware of Dogs

  Two neighborhood dogs turn an ordinary evening walk into an unexpected welcome, offering a lonesome soul laughter, companionship, and a little grace.

  RMDell’Orfano

  September 4, 2026

  Autobio

  Companionship, dogs, evening walks, friendship, grace, human connection, humor, irony, Loneliness, pets, prayer, solitude, spirituality, whispered bonds

• A Grave Matter

  A Catholic reflects on his parents’ lifelong civil marriage, a cousin’s museum wedding, and why character, sacrifice, and example matter to marriage.

  RMDell’Orfano

  August 30, 2026

  Autobio

  Catholic marriage, Catholicism, civil marriage, commitment, covenant, faith, family, family example, fidelity, Freemasonry, love, marriage, modern culture, parents, sacramental marriage, sacrifice, Thomas Aquinas, virtue, wedding

• Sacred Greens

  A former boy caddy wonders why grown men pursue a little white ball—and discovers in golf a religion of silence, ritual, confession, and jubilation.

  RMDell’Orfano

  August 21, 2026

  Autobio

  Bobby Jones, caddying, confession, contemplation, fellowship, golf, penance, Religion, ritual, sacred space, self-discipline, silence, spirituality, stillness

• Table for Two

  An aging writer confronts lost friends, loneliness, noisy socializing, and chosen solitude—and discovers that living alone does not necessarily mean living without companionship.

  RMDell’Orfano

  August 14, 2026

  Autobio, Psychology

  aging, alcoholism, Companionship, COVID-19, elderly, faith, friendship, hearing loss, living alone, Loneliness, nursing homes, senior centers, seniors, social isolation, solitude, spiritual companionship, writing, Zoom

• Mama:The Iceman’s Here

  A reflection on a century of technological progress, from East Boston’s close-knit neighborhoods to today’s digital isolation, asking what we may have lost along the way.

  RMDell’Orfano

  August 7, 2026

  Autobio

  aging, artificial intelligence, community, digital isolation, East Boston, elders, family memories, human connection, human dignity, iceman, Loneliness, milkman, modern society, neighborhood life, nostalgia, postman, progress, technology, Tower of Babel

• The Prompted U-Turn

  After abandoning a crowded medical laboratory, an unexpected inner prompting led me to make a U-turn toward another location. What happened next left me wondering whether adults explain away what children readily recognize. This reflection explores providence, coincidence, and Jesus’ invitation to become like little children.

  RMDell’Orfano

  July 23, 2026

  Autobio

  answered prayer, childlike faith, Christian testimony, coincidence, discernment, divine guidance, everyday miracles, everyday providence, faith journey, Gospel of Matthew, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Labcorp, Matthew 21, Providence, Route 78, spiritual reflection, trust in God, U-turn

• Much More Than Food

  Before I was born, an Italian family table taught me that food was never just nourishment—it was love, gratitude to God, and the first lesson of faith.

  RMDell’Orfano

  July 10, 2026

  Autobio

  Catholic spirituality, Christian faith, family table, family traditions, gratitude, Italian heritage, John 6, love, memoir, Sicilian cooking, tomato sauce

• Beyond AI: The Real Challenge

  An engineer reflects on WPI in the 1960s, the rise of artificial intelligence, and why lived experience—not information alone—remains the true path to wisdom.

  RMDell’Orfano

  July 3, 2026

  Autobio

  ai, artificial intelligence, Christian life, college life, critical thinking, education reform, engineering, engineering education, experience, experiential learning, Faith and Reason, higher education, learning, lifelong learning, machine shop, memoir, perseverance, personal growth, pilgrimage, practical wisdom, qualifying project, Scripture, slide rule, smartphones, STEM, technology, vocational education, Wisdom, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, WPI

• Munching on Mars Bars

  As a boy, I munched Mars Bars, read Jules Verne, and dreamed of rockets. Decades later, from Sputnik and Apollo to Elon Musk’s Starships, I find myself asking a different question. Mars may be humanity’s next destination, but the most difficult frontier I encountered was never millions of miles away—it was within.

  RMDell’Orfano

  June 18, 2026

  Autobio

  American history, backyard rockets, Billionaire Bunkers, childhood memories, Elon Musk, Elon Musk burnout Tesla SpaceX decline Prometheus metaphor tech Social media addiction X Twitter Musk critique Ketamine and Asperger’s Musk, From the Earth to the Moon, Goddard, innovation, inward journey vs outer space, Jules Verne, Mars candy bars, Mars exploration, personal memoir, reflections on progress, Robert Goddard, science fiction, Space Race, spaceflight history, SpaceX, Sputnik, Starship, technology and society

• Beneath the Same Cloud

  A 1953 schoolboy and a 2026 billionaire build the exact same bomb shelter. One used imagination, the other uses billions—but the radioactive cloud sees no net worth.

  RMDell’Orfano

  June 11, 2026

  Autobio

  1953, 2026, Atmospheric Drift, Bill Gates, Billionaire Bunkers, Childhood Fears, Cold War, Duck and Cover, Human Impermanence, Mark Zuckerberg, Melrose, Mushroom Cloud, Nevil Shute, On the Beach, Peter Thiel, Spiritual Refuge, Temporal Illusion, The Antenna Paradox