I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference.

We criticize mothers for closeness. We criticize fathers for distance. How many of us have expected less from our fathers and appreciated what they gave us more? How many of us always let them off the hook?

We owned what we learned back there; the experience and the growth are grafted into our lives.

Today, much of journalism and politics are in a kind of collusion to oversimplify and personalize issues. No room for ambivalence. Plenty of room for the personal attack.

Civility, it is said, means obeying the unenforceable.

I think most of us become self-critical as soon as we become self-conscious.

Values are not trendy items that are casually traded in.