@LIFE & CULTURE 
When “Queer” Was a Slur: My Early Brush With Transgender Identity
The image below is a Promotion for a transgender art exhibit in November 2013. At right is a charcoal self-portrait by the late transgender...
@LIFE & CULTURE
How Do You Make Sense of a Voice That Speaks to You from an Afterlife You Don’t Believe In?
If you’ve ever lost a loved one, unless you’re a die-hard atheist, agnostic or nihilist, you’ve probably found yourself contemplating the notion of communing...
@LIFE & CULTURE
Pathogens in the Air, Protesters in the Street, Prospects for Change Within and Without
An odd amalgam of tragedies is conspiring to make this an unprecedented time — a strange mixture of calamity and hope that could render...
@LIFE & CULTURE
One Step Forward, Six Steps Back: Is There Any Hope of Curing America’s Race Problem?
The little black boy wearing a white T-shirt and black face mask stood out from the adults in the photo accompanying a front-page story...
@LIFE & CULTURE
Could Poor Communication Decisions Derail Constructive Reform?
As someone who’s worked in both newspaper reporting and as a public affairs officer for a major corporation, I’m deeply concerned about some of...
@LIFE & CULTURE
Partners in Time
I was still in the throes of first love lost in my freshman year of college. So when our English Composition professor had us...
@LIFE & CULTURE
Need Something to Believe In When Life Seems Cruel? Try the 4 Noble Truths
The random cruelty of an event like this pandemic can shake our faith in life. In times like these, philosophers, theologians, and pundits “ponder...
@LIFE & CULTURE
Pandemic Twins
We’re a playful pair of panda twins
Pandemic pals both wearing grins
While walking streets so slow and sparse
It’s made life seem a wicked...
@LIFE & CULTURE
Sorry, But Age Is Not Just a Number
When I was studying journalism in graduate school at Temple University in the mid-1970s, I learned that understanding the context of a situation is...
