A few days ago (May 6, 2012) the New York Times published an article called “The Outsourced Life.” One of the people mentioned in the article is Katherine Ziegler, who describes herself as a “wantologist.” She helps people figure out what they want. For example, by running through a series of questions, Ziegler helped one client figure out that although she thought she wanted a “bigger house,” what she really wanted was more peace in her life. Ziegler counseled that the woman create a room in her …

Last fall the Society of Jesus issued a special report on ecology. The document, titled Healing a Broken World, can fairly be described as an ecological call to action directed at all Jesuit and partner apostolates around the world. That would include this blog. “We need a deep change of heart,” the authors wrote. “This is the only radical way to face the present ecological challenge.”

Last month my twenty-year-old niece passed away suddenly. I spent ten days with my sister and her family trying to help them through what will likely be the hardest thing they ever have to endure. Perhaps the greatest fear of any parent is that something will happen to their children. Those of us who are parents know our own vulnerability, and we know the suffering that such a loss would cause. My sister and her family are trying to find a way to a new normal, but it is a …

The other night I attended a documentary on Climate Refugees. It was an assemblage of apocalyptic predictions about the mass migrations that could be triggered if warming continues unabated and the world warms 3 or 4 degrees Celsius. Things, the film suggest, are pretty much going to suck, I mean really suck. The goal of the filmmaker, I suppose, was to scare the crap out of us in the hope that this might motivate us to change. This approach bugs me.