Pop’s encore was set in motion as my mother, Betty Detweiler King, was dying in September 2010. Breaking his hip last February had left my dad Aaron’s mind fogged-in. Alzheimer’s? Lingering post-hospital psychosis? We were never sure …

Holding hands in a circle, seven grown men, a couple and a family share with each other what they are thankful for. Several of them are hard-core alcoholics reaching towards sobriety for the first time in a long time. Others are hard-core drug addicts, some struggle with mental illness and some are Christians—all reaching together toward recovery …

In Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell, one of my favorite authors, Gladwell writes about what makes people successful, suggesting that people are not just naturally successful. When you follow their lives, you see that their journeys prepared them …

While substitute teaching at a middle school recently, I noticed a leather coaster with a quote from Aristotle on it: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” Might the same be true of peacemaking? And of violence? …

Films often serve as a mirror of the trends in our culture. As art, they also uncover certain realities we may otherwise ignore …