Thanksgiving is right around the corner. It is a good time to remember that the secret to happiness and the moral life is gratitude. A few days ago, I received a video of an address/testimony of one of my most courageous former students. He has a story to tell that will show you what gratitude looks like in his journey of faith and his connection to God’s will. David Gallagher was a highly recruited football player in eighth grade among local prep schools. He chose to come to

The Inquirer (November 14) wrote about what it was like for 670,000 workers furloughed by the government and the 730,000 federal workers who were affected by the shutdown. Many of them were required to work without pay. Trump piled on with threats to not pay them if they didn’t report to work which added to their plight. The Bank of America Institute indicated that 24% of all workers live paycheck to paycheck. Investodia puts the figure at 67%. Federal workers were forced to

Vicki and I were invited to a luncheon given at the home of an EA alumnus. I checked the directions on my phone, but when we arrived, I found it difficult to fully identify the home for the luncheon. The homes were different in this cluster from an architectural perspective; but  looked the same and did not stand out. When we entered, we were greeted by the host and made our way into the middle of the gathering with a wonderful group of extroverts who engaged us readily in co

Roof Repair, Shutdowns, Function, Emotion              Jim Squire                            November 2025 One of the important themes that I learned in becoming a therapist were words spoken to me by a mentor that the best time to repair a roof is not when it is raining. Get help when there is a neutral time and not a time during chaos. This anecdote is found in our government shutdowns at the national and state level as well as in marriages that fall apart, and life in gene

One of the important themes that I learned in becoming a therapist were words spoken to me by a mentor that the best time to repair a roof is not when it is raining. Get help when there is a neutral time and not a time during chaos. This anecdote is found in our government shutdowns at the national and state level as well as in marriages that fall apart, and life in general. I met with two grandparents several months ago as they were having trouble when their  adult children

Every grifter such as Trump is the master of the spin. After the Democrats recently voted Republicans out of many offices, he said, “It was the shutdown that caused this!” Better to say that to save his ego when it really was a referendum on his leadership and how bad that leadership was for “table” considerations with not enough money because of inflation. People also saw his terrible strategy on tariffs, mass deportations, government random layoffs, tax cuts for the rich, p

Trump's Response To Someone Who Fainted In His Office How would you describe Trump is this picture? We will come back to it. I want to frame this blog by the words that I would see and hear in the picture if the picture could talk. Ethics is certainly about what one does, but it is also about how wrong something could be if a person doesn’t do something when action is required. Ethics states that actions or inaction are all ethical decisions. There is no neutral ground in liv

Some of you may not be familiar with this food, mush, and fewer have probably ever eaten it. It is cornmeal, mixed with water or milk with a pinch of salt. It is usually served as sliced and fried. It was a staple in the Dust Bowl days, and the Great Depression. In working class America, it appeared on tables usually for dinner (supper in working class language). It lay on a plate greasy with syrup poured on top. I hated it! It didn’t take me long to figure out that when it w

A few years before I retired, EA had a spectacular basketball team, ranked nationally, and contained two highly recruited players. Gerald Henderson would choose Duke and Wayne Ellington would go on to the University of North Carolina. When the players returned from their official visits to those schools, I was told that Gerald’s mother really was more interested in the character of Coach K than she was in anything else. I was not surprised because she was a person of faith. I

I have attached a video of Michael Smerconish’s view on the answer to our current political agenda that would lead to justice, one of the pillars of ethics. I have known Mike for many years and follow his contributions on CNN. He is a former EA parent and someone who I know has worked behind the scenes in helping one of my families who needed support. He was very helpful to me when 9/11 occurred as he followed that tragedy and arranged for speakers for our chapel services inc

About half of Americans (48%) said that Trump’s actions are worse than they expected. Two out of ten said that they are better than what they expected. Joe Rogan, the podcaster said that he would vote for Trump and encouraged his listeners to do the same is shocked by what Trump has done. The word that seems to weave its way through various polls is the word, surprise! Given the fact that sports betting has for many years has been seen as wrong but with the growing number of

J I am sure that you, the reader, have had those times when you are reading the Inquirer  (October 22) or The New York Times in a casual way, and then you read something that rips you in vivid terms from now to the past. For me it occurred when I was reading the Inquirer  this morning. There was an article, Looking back on Philly’s bloody mob war of the 1990s”. More than 30 years ago, Philadelphia was the battleground in a brutal mob war as young mafia upstarts challenged th