Americans readily accept two opposing ideas about the first Thanksgiving — one bright and highly idealized, the other gray and somber, but closer to the truth. Jean Leon Gerome Ferris captured the first idea in a painting completed in 1915,…

The Society of Mayflower Descendants in Plymouth, Massachusetts, keeps pretty close watch over folks who can trace their lineage back to the Pilgrims. Among the descendants are the predictable (the Adams clan), the shocking (Lizzie Borden and John Hinckley), and…

Each year prior to Thanksgiving I try to express the reasons for my gratitude in print. This year is difficult. The republic I love is facing new and formidable challenges. A hostile minority is so embittered it has adopted the…

Democrats, Libertarians and Republicans, oh my! ’Tis the season for giving thanks and gathering around large, make-shift banquet tables with family and friends typically avoiding a cousin or in-law you deem as politically undesirable. Of course, you do look forward…

What? Your Christmas tree hasn’t been up for a week yet? Surely your home is ablaze with red and green and yellow lights? Like the neighbors’ houses? No? Sad (as our president might declare if he gave the matter any…

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.  — James 4:14 This Thanksgiving, my children and I made…