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Clicking the Heels of my Ruby Slippers

Everyone should take a trip out of the area once and a while to truly appreciate what we have right here. Why is it our tendency to think what we have is subpar? Allow me to explain. Last weekend, I took a trip to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and Hickory Run State Park. Don’t get me wrong, it was a wonderful experience, and if you have never visited this area of the Poconos, I would highly recommend it, but as I looked at the mountains and walked the trails, I was thinking of home. As I have mentioned before, I am a sucker for waterfalls, no matter the width or ...

Democrats are making a crazy bet

By Rich Lowry President Joe Biden’s fall at the end of the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony was a brief event. He tripped, got helped up, and walked off under his own power. Sometimes, though, a small thing is fraught with meaning — and with peril. Biden’s stumbles are not minor incidents, or a laughing matter. We aren’t talking about a manufactured narrative about President Jerry Ford’s alleged clumsiness played up on “Saturday Night Live.” Biden is 80 years old, is in decline, and has a stiff, shuffling gait that makes you hold your breath when he’s ...

With volunteering, you get more than you give

By John Kleindienst Most of us have heard people say something along the lines of “I get more out of it than they do” when talking about the volunteer experience. Some will even couch that statement with “I know it sounds cliche, but …” as if others may not believe the genuine feeling they get from their belief. However, it’s a statement that should be celebrated without an ounce of shame, because it highlights the truth about the volunteer experience. When we volunteer, we can find common ground with others we may have perceived as different from ourselves. We discover ...

What to do when the doctor is not in

My doctor is retiring. I am heartbroken. For 30 years, he’s been the first line of defense. A strange pain here? Give him a call. A stomach issue there? Give him a call. Time for a physical? Give him a call. Need a vaccine? Give him a call. For 30 years, whenever something ailed me, I would drive to his office, step on the scale, have my blood pressure taken, then sit in the tidy exam room until the door opened and he entered with a smile -- and my file. Over the years, I’ve watched that file thicken, from a few thin papers to the size of a toaster box. He needs two hands to ...

Missing a home for insects in Austria

Here in the U.S. I miss all the hustle and bustle of the many insects that visit my Austrian country house every year. So far, I have only seen three brimstone butterflies, as well as a few bees and wasps. But I’ve come across lots and lots of mowers. If I ever thought that grass couldn’t be cut any shorter, Americans taught me otherwise. I feel like as soon as the first flower cautiously dares to grow, the mower is brought out, and since people are at it, they cut the rest of their lawn too. To be fair though: if my mom moved here, nobody would notice that she was from abroad. ...

Resist dangerous political theater

Too many politicians are thespians. When there’s a conflict -- as there often is -- between appearing to solve problems and actually helping to solve those problems, politicians can almost always be counted on to put appearance over substance. Unfortunately, politicians succumb to this bias even when their theatrics make real problems worse. Consider French President Emmanuel Macron’s boast last week that his government banned many flights between cities within 2.5 hours of each other by rail. Nothing today is more en vogue than climate theatrics, sometimes at the expense of ...