Dr. John V. Farrar
the snowman therapist

In my non-literary expert opinion, one of the finest American authors of the 20th century was Pat Conroy. He balanced skillful storytelling with vivid and thoughtful prose. And his subject matter, based heavily upon his own dysfunctional family origins, generally...

I recently bumped into an old acquaintance. Let’s call him Matt. Matt is a skilled electrician who had much to do with the building of our home, many years ago. Since the project took over a year, I had many opportunities to chat with him about matters outside the...

A core ritual of Alcoholics Anonymous is the reading of the “Serenity Prayer.” If some of my readers are cringing about an addiction lecture, STOP! Alcohol is not the topic of this missive, but the wisdom of the prayer is. Essentially, the Serenity Prayer asks us to...

We are our choices. Sartre Many years ago, a man named Gale Sayers wrote a book entitled, I am Third. Sayers’ book became popular, largely because of his fame as a professional football icon with the Chicago Bears. But the value of his writing was to be found in its...

Talent is its own expectation: you either live up to it or it waves a hankie, receding forever. David Foster Wallace What exactly is a gift? Let’s begin by moving away from wrapping paper, Amazon shopping, and Santa. What’s the definition of a gift? Actually, there...

The open-minded see the truth in different things; the narrow –minded see only the differences. AnonymousDuring the course of a recent discussion about current events, I referenced the parable of “the blind men from India and the elephant.” For those of you not...

"Whenever one person stands up and says, “Wait a minute; this is wrong,” it helps others do the same. SteinemWhen I was nine years old in 1954, I played on the first Little League baseball team inmy community of Edison Park, Chicago. Because little league was a new...