Their names were Thomas and Bridget Keane, but to their children and grandchildren they were always Pop and Bird. They lived in Boston in the early years of the 20th Century, and raised four sons and two daughters. They were not rich, except in intelligence, affection and humor. Their faith was their bedrock, and education was valued far beyond any material success it might produce.
Author Archives: Richard B. Griffin
Life Magazine
When I was growing up, my parents received Life magazine every week. It was a valuable source of information, especially for my father, who was a newspaperman. For me and my younger brothers and sisters, it provided entertainment, some of it scandalous.
Silence and Meditation
The New Yorker magazine, of some fifteen years ago, published a cartoon showing two Buddhist monks. They are sitting next to one another outside their monastery.
The one on the left says to his companion on the right: “Are you not thinking what I’m not thinking?”
Injustice Paid For
Radovan Karadzic is a name that many of us have forgotten. Recent events have reminded us of the horrific role he played in the European history of the late twentieth century. Belatedly, he has been held to account for his crimes.
Dan Aaron – – Dear Friend
One of my dearest friends died last week. He had been one hundred and three years old.
I considered knowing Daniel Aaron a blessing. About himself, he had many things to say, virtually all worth keeping.
Some of them he put in a small folder called “Mortuary Airs.”
Offer For Help
Leaving the gym, I was walking down a flight of stairs to the sidewalk. A few steps showed traces of snow and ice. I was gripping the banister tightly. I had almost reached the bottom when I heard a young woman speak.
“Do you want some help?” she asked.
Voters Less Sectarian
Something once said by the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard applies beautifully to old age as a vocation. “What is it to be God’s chosen?,” he asks. “It is to be denied in youth the wishes of youth, so with great pains to get them fulfilled in old age.”
This vision of the later years as a time of fulfillment means that the last stages are the time when one’s life acquires its true meaning and becomes whole.