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Dear Hope Nation, It’s Saturday morning at 8:27. Yesterday, I got my first vaccination for COVID-19. It was quick and easy and the only side- or after-effect was my left arm was sore this morning, with a minor pain that went away with a couple ibuprofens. I did have a...

Dear Hope Nation, For at least two reasons, I don’t get to write about philosophy very often. First, most people’s eyes and brains glaze over when the subject comes up, believing they’re in for Latin phrases and other even less clear language. I promise no cogito ergo...

Dear Hope Nation, While I have new thoughts bubbling up all the time, I’m not above stealing borrowing employing the fair-use doctrine to create derivative works for the purpose of satire. Typically, and in this case, I take smart and decent people’s ideas and render...

Dear Hope Nation, As you may have heard, a vaccine for COVID-19 has been released for distribution. Because we spend so much time with folks who may be positive for the virus, the Hope staff falls into a priority group for receiving the vaccine. In fact, I’ve signed...

Dear Hope Nation, As I write this, I’m looking at a woman who is looking at me. It’s disconcerting, since I’ve been doing this for 30 minutes or so, all in the name of a project I’m very excited about. As you may know, I have three daughters in their 20’s. They get...

Dear Hope Nation, You matter. I matter. We matter. That’s how I end of these letters and there’s a reason for that. Like many of you, I’ve been in that place where there is no friendly direction, where I rotated between being invisible or disgusting or embarrassing to...

Dear Hope Nation, Archaeology has to work with the stuff that gets found.  For instance, much of what we know about Roman Britain isn’t based on written records left lying around for 1600 years; it’s conjecture drawn from types of pottery and crockery exhumed...

Dear Hope Nation, A trigger warning: if long intricate profiles of people are not your cup of tea, you shouldn’t read today’s letter. Go grab a cup of coffee and find something shorter. This is a lengthy read. Good. It’s just us now. We’ve cleared out the folks for...

Dear Hope Nation, Happy New Year! As I write this, it’s 6:58 am, January 1, 2021. It’s my 14th consecutive New Year’s Day without a hangover, without remorse and without that gnawing sense I’d done something awful or humiliating during a blackout the night before. I...

Dear Hope Nation, I haven’t had a drink or used any mind-altering substances since May 21, 2007, which seems a long time to many of you, long enough to raise the question of why I continue to go to meetings and focus daily on my recovery. “After 13 years,” I can hear...

Dear Hope Nation, [Attention deficit disorder is, no doubt, a serious condition. Having lived 62 years without ever being sure what my last thought was or where my next one will take me, I have little doubt I am one of its afflictees. Regular readers have no doubt...

Dear Hope Nation, I try to write for the next-to-lowest common denominator. That is, I usually write these letters with the entire readership in mind. Today, though, that herd will be culled. Instead, I’m writing for one person in particular, and I don’t know who it...

cDear Hope Nation, I’m alone in a Zoom room right now. More accurately, I’m with myself in a Zoom room right now. Most accurately, I’m sitting in a chair in my loft, waiting for people to appear in a meeting that was scheduled to begin 40 minutes ago. Because I wanted...

Dear Hope Nation, Christmas has come and gone, but I’d like to share one more Christmas-related anecdote and, perhaps, although unlikely to a vanishing point, save a life. My parents were good parents, a sentence I need before I tell you about my time in a basement...

Dear Hope Nation, Yesterday was Christmas, so today is December 26 aka St. Stephen’s Day aka Boxing Day aka the day after Christmas. (That lower-case “d” in the last phrase makes me sad, although I can’t say why. Perhaps it is because our British cousins have an extra...

Dear Hope Nation, When I have little kids in my life, I like Christmas more than the average man, but significantly less than the average woman of my experience.  I’ve never grumbled about the expense and bother of a real tree, complained about choosing and...

Dear Hope Nation, I really like Christmas, but I know not everybody does. One group that Christmas can attack with a vengeance is people who are early (for this, let’s say 1 day to 2 years) in their recovery from drug and alcohol abuse. Another group in danger is...

Dear Hope Nation, A number of readers have questioned my inability to watch much video in almost any form. I don’t know how to prove a negative, and it’s not like I never watch any video. This year, during the beginning of the lockdown, I watched a number of episodes...

Dear Hope Nation, Christmas is in three days. This year’s holiday season is unique, as are many other things during this time of pestilence. We have no office Christmas parties, with mandated fun and secret Santas. I will not jump into a crowd of excited but anxious...

Dear Hope Nation, When I was a boy, or slightly before, Franklin D. Roosevelt was president throughout the Great Depression and most of World War II. From 1933 to 1945, FDR made a series of about 30 Fireside Chats, delivered by radio from the White House to Americans,...

Dear Hope Nation,  It’s Sunday and, although the days slip one into another in these days, it’s still Sunday. For some of us, that means a time of worship, prayer and reflection. For some of us, a day of rest. For some, a day of football. For me? Sunday is a day...

Dear Hope Nation, “It's a funny thing about humility/As soon as you know you're being humble/You're no longer humble.” T Bone Burnett I have a similar-with-a-twist experience with depression. That is, when I’m truly depressed, it’s tough to find the energy to describe...

Dear Hope Nation, I’ve never been through a contemporary rehab for drugs or alcohol, so most of my knowledge comes second-hand from folks who have. (In the previous sentence, I used the word “modern” because I did complete a 60’s-holdover program in Landstuhl,...

Dear Hope Nation, Recovery is filled with milestones, figuratively at least. Milestones, of course, are carved rocks set up beside a road to mark the number of miles to a place. They tell us how far we have to go to arrive at, for instance, Dover or Pittsburg or...

Dear Hope Nation, Imagine a world where you are the smartest, most attractive, funniest, most insightful person in history. Sages come to you for advice, children are named after you and all respect your opinion in all things. Because of your greatness, all your...