The truth is that we can overhaul our surroundings, renovate our environment, talk a new game, join a new club, far more easily than we can change the way we respond emotionally. It is easier to change behavior than feelings about that behavior.

Civility, it is said, means obeying the unenforceable.

In today's amphetamine world of news junkies, speed trumps thoughtfulness too often.

Taboos are falling across our culture like dominoes. What was unspeakable yesterday dominates talk shows today.

The central struggle of parenthood is to let our hopes for our children outweigh our fears.

You can believe in women's rights without believing that every woman is right.

We may never know why Joe Ellis fabricated a heroic past. But we know that the life he embellished has deeply diminished the life he'd earned.