The words that follow were written by the great singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett in the form of the song “A Pirate Looks at Forty.” And almost every time I hear them I cry. Not with outward tears for the world to see, or with any measure of sadness attached, but instead, with an inward sense of […]

Death comes to all of us, but its approach is difficult to discuss. But the subject of death, and a debate about the proper treatments that should be available to people who are terminally ill, attracted scores of people to a legislative hearing room last week. Many urged support for a proposed law (LD 1270) […]

The news has been filled lately with embarrassing stories of men behaving badly. Though not much was at stake in any of these four unfortunate incidents, they did provoke a common question: What were they thinking? Two of these sad stories occurred in my hometown of Westbrook, a former mill town still struggling to find […]

We talk about work-life balance as if it’s that simple. As if we only need to consider work on one hand, and life on the other, to divide our time and energy into proper and equal portions. As if life can be summed up in one word. What happens if one day, I victoriously unplug […]