J. Davy Crockett III

Earlier this year, thousands of workers crowded into a huge building known as the Rana Plaza in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This building housed several clothing factories, where workers endured deplorable working conditions not uncommon in many developing countries. As the workday unfolded, the building suddenly began rumbling and shaking. However, this was no earthquake, but the imminent collapse of the shoddily constructed building itself!

It seems that every generation has its own style of music. Someone who grew up in the 1940s probably enjoys the sounds of the “big band” era. Then, in the late 40s and early 50s, the plaintive sounds of country music filled the airwaves as tales of heartache and hard times were set to music. From the classics to the singing celebrities of the “Grand Old Opry” to the age of electronica today, music certainly seems to “tug at the strings” of the human heart.

The world has been riveted to the headlines coming from the Vatican since the resignation of Pope Benedict and the installation of Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope in the long and colorful history of the Roman Catholic Church. Devout Catholics—along with nominal believers and hundreds of millions of non-Catholics—have been fascinated by the pageantry, formality, wealth, and deeply ingrained traditions of this ancient church.

There is a line from a poem by William Ross Wallace (1819–1881) that you have probably heard. He wrote, “For the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.”

Seeing a tattered American flag displayed on the home next door after a windstorm, my aged father-in-law—a Colonel retired from the United States Air Force—set out to offer his neighbor a replacement for the damaged flag. I accompanied him as we met the neighbor, a short, portly man with white hair and a big smile. He had not realized that his flag was in tatters, and he graciously accepted the new flag as it was offered.