Author: Mark J. Chmiel
On Daniel Berrigan
1. Some of Daniel Berrigan’s Whitmanian multitudes: Brother, uncle, jailbird, correspondent, chef, Jesuit, retreat master, playwright poet, peacemaker, mentor, reader, teacher, prophet, son, friend, logophile. 2. In our age they they talk about the importance…
Ninety Years Alive on Earth
On Thich Nhat Hanh, At Home in the World: Stories and Essential Teachings from a Monk’s Life. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 2016. Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh is a survivor. Narrowly missing death in…
The Good News of Pregnancy, 4.10.2017
Eileen McGrath Mosher responded to my out of the blue text with word that she is expecting her third child this September.
The Good News of Opening, 4.9.2017
I asked Kine and Puck if they’d be willing to open their home on campus to host Share the Wealth with Marilyn Vazquez, and they agreed; warm hospitality was also extended by tennis teammates Bekah…
The Good News of Remembering a Friend, 4.8.2017
In 45 minutes I wrote three post cards, two letters and one note to a friend on the East Coast; I’ll post one a day for the upcoming week.
The Good News of a Knock on the Front Door, 4.7.2017
We were eating dinner when there was a short knock at the door. Whose knock was it—Charlene? Davion? Andrew? Joanie answered the door, and it was Chelsea Jaeger! She lives several houses up the block,…
The Good News of the Barakats, 4.6.2017
Last night, Sharifa Barakat and I had dinner at Central Cafe (along with Imman Musa and Dania Saffaf Atienza). Sarah Dwidar introduced me to Sharifa her freshman year at SLU on sunny day on West…
The Good News of a Reader’s Response, 4.4.2017
Some time back I received the following from Fred Zweig after he read The Book of Mev– “Mark, I finished reading your book yesterday. It has it all: a beautiful love story, heroic idealism, clarity. It is…
The Good News of MLK, 4.4.2017
Fifty years ago today at NYC’s Riverside Church, Martin Luther King delivered a powerful, prophetic indictment of U.S. war-making in Vietnam: “They ask if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve…