Before I Forget

Before I Forget

(With apologies to Wilbur Smith, who has already used this title, and to Murray Harris, who borrowed it from him before I could) I won’t sugar coat the news: I just turned sixty-five. I can remember when my mother’s father turned this age. He seemed...
Before I Forget

Protests, Yes. Lawbreaking, NO!

One of the blessings of living in the United States of America is freedom of speech. No American needs to ask permission to state his mind, whether in public or in private. This freedom is recognized as a fundamental right—the kind of right that the Declaration of...
Before I Forget

Unexpected Interruptions

The summer has not gone as I intended. Of course, many folk can say the same, what with the restrictions imposed in the wake of COVID-19. That’s not what I mean, though. I saw those restrictions as an opportunity. Suddenly my entire summer schedule opened up. I...
Before I Forget

Goodbye, Uncle Myron

Edmund Burke, in his Reflections on the Revolution in France, spoke of the “unbought grace of life.” What he meant was that we receive from our forebears a patrimony of ideas, perspectives, habits, attitudes, and sensibilities that together make life more...
Before I Forget

A Conversation with a Friend

After two days of the rioting in Minneapolis, I had occasion to visit with a friend—I’ll call him Simon. Simon is nearly my age and has recently retired from two simultaneous careers: as a police detective and as a platoon sergeant in the National Guard, with whom he...