The latest essay
What Scripture Teaches Us About Patience and Humility
Micah 6:8 asks us to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly, while Proverbs 14:29 warns that a quick temper displays folly.
Read the essayAMAC Yesteryear a column
The Long View
Reflective essays on poetry, wisdom and the timeless truths worth living by.
Several times a week · About the author
Recent essays
- What WWII Veterans Taught About Hard Work and Resilience A turret gunner in an Avenger and a sailor who did hard time in the Pacific taught me plumbing, carpentry, and how to get back up when you fail.
- A Teacher's Lasting Light: Honoring a Life Well Lived Doris Anne lost her father at four, taught remedial reading in Monmouth, Maine, and nursed her ailing husband for three years, laughing through two divorces and every loss.
- Honoring Resilience: Stories of Veterans and Enduring Courage Corporal Ethan Reed of Boothbay Harbor died near Taechon in November 1950, his remains never returned, his name now on the Korean War Memorial Wall in Washington.
- What General Grant Teaches Us About Courage and Resolve The general who won at Appomattox trusted his gut over critics: "The most confident critics are generally those who know the least about the matter criticized."
- Mother Teresa's Counsel: Doing Small Things With Great Love Canonized a saint 23 years ago this month, Mother Theresa worked among India's poorest and left a line worth keeping: do small things with great love.
- No Act of Kindness Is Ever Wasted Aesop's mouse gnawed a trapped lion free 2,500 years ago, repaying mercy with mercy — a lesson Saint Paul and Jesus pressed on us about kindness we seem to be losing.
- Thank Goodness for Campfires A nose-to-nose moose at 12 in Kakadjo, a skunk mistaken for a raccoon, and the pull of flames that connected people around fires a million years ago.
- Dickinson, Keats, Shelley, and Blake: Timeless Poems About Hope Emily Dickinson at 61 called hope "the thing with feathers," while Keats wrote "To Hope" at just 19, joined here by Shelley and Blake.
From the column
October 20264 essays
September 202616 essays
- What We Can Learn From The Inklings' Lost Art of Conversation
- Joshua Chamberlain: The Faith Behind a Civil War Hero
- Integrity and Freedom: Why Character Still Defines True Leadership
- Longfellow’s “A Day of Sunshine”: Finding Joy in Every Season
- Why Wonder Still Matters in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
- Alvin Toffler’s Warning – Do Not Trade Judgement for AI
- About Resilience
- The Joys of Fall: Robert Frost and the Beauty of Autumn
- Why Reading Books Still Matters More Than Ever
- What History's Bravest Leaders Teach Us About Facing Fear Today
- The Quest: Serving Others Before Time Runs Out
- Robert Frost’s Wit and Wisdom: Timeless Lessons on Life
- In the World, Not of It: Staying True to Timeless Truths
- Labor Day: The Timeless Value of Hard Work and Purpose
- A Poem to Lift Your Spirits: Longfellow’s Arrow and Song
- Finding Hope and Beauty in Wordsworth's Timeless "Daffodils"
August 202611 essays
- The Enduring Advice of Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac
- The Happy Warrior: Lessons in Self-Control From Colin Powell
- Longfellow’s Seaside Memories and the Whimsy of Youth
- Theodore Roosevelt's Timeless Lesson on Courage in "Iron Times"
- Carpe Diem: What Robert Frost Really Meant About Seizing the Day
- Marcus Aurelius and the Lost Art of Staying Composed
- Sonny’s Smile: Lessons in Good Cheer from a Maine Logger
- Theodore Roosevelt's Enduring Lesson: America Is No Accident
- The Bald Eagle: America's Enduring Symbol of Strength and Unity
- Tennyson’s Timeless Truths: Poetry That Still Comforts and Inspires
- Faith and Courage: The Enduring Legacy of America’s Military Chaplains
July 202616 essays
- Ben Franklin’s Silence That Helped Spark a Revolution
- Edmund Burke’s Timeless Warning About Preserving American Liberty Today
- Theodore Roosevelt on Ulysses S. Grant: Leadership Lessons That Still Matter Today
- Why Trust Is the Foundation of Great Leadership and Effective Problem-Solving
- Colin Powell’s Leadership Lessons: Why Kindness Was His Greatest Strength
- Finding God in Robert Frost's Poetry
- Why Reading Is More Important Than Ever
- Earned, Never Given
- The Blue Angels
- Before the Moon Landing
- Two Cent Piece
- The Week...After July 4
- What is Selfless Service?
- Time to Step Up
- James Madison, America’s 4th President
- The Real Jefferson