Grace |
Each morning starts the same. I head down to the kitchen at 6:30 am, put a corn muffin in the toaster and make a cup of coffee.
Drinking my coffee, I open the NY Times on my iPod and scan the headlines. Far too often, I immediately close the device with more than a twinge of horror.
At these times I find myself hearing Don Henley singing these words from “The Heart of the Matter” in my head:
We all need a little tenderness
In such a graceless age?
The world, our world is in need of grace. Thus, I share my thoughts about a friend who has lived a life of grace and is a man of grace. For now, we will call him M.
I first met M in September 1977. We were both on our way to begin our first year’s field placement (internship) as part of our social work studies. I liked M immediately, enjoying his droll New York sense of humor.
Each of us had experienced loss—his younger sister and my father. If not framing our lives, these losses caused us to view life through a different........