Viewpoints

Baseball and movies don't often play well together. William Bendix as the Bambino in "The Babe Ruth Story" is a sad business, to be consigned to the (bad) memory bank. "The Natural" and "Bull Durham" have their moments, but when push comes to shove, they're both about something other than baseball. "61*," Billy Crystal's made-for-HBO flick about Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and the chase for Ruth's single-season home-run is a terrific story of male friendship (and gave this lifelong Yankees-deplorer a soft spot for the 1961 Bronx Bombers); but just misses being a great baseball movie.

A woman's mind is like a teleprompter of to-dos that never stops turning.

Unanswered email, unwritten thank-yous, unfolded laundry. Tupperware that needs to be washed and returned. Overdue RSVPs and expired milk. Empty gas tank, full memory card. Birthdays and deadlines, the personal and the professional knotted together beyond the point of repair.

During the recent U.S. Supreme Court hearings on marriage legislation, in responding to a question by Justice Antonin Scalia, same-sex marriage advocate Ted Olson voiced the widespread claim that striking down as discriminatory all laws that prohibit such marriages is the next logical step in an ongoing civil rights movement. After all, didn't we declare unconstitutional for that very reason those state laws that banned marriage between blacks and whites?

We live in a culture that seems to be obsessed with many things, not the least of which is time. From very early on in our lives, we are encouraged and molded to be attentive to punctuality and to be responsible with our use of time. In our families, for example, we create family rituals that mark distinct times of when and where we do certain things: we speak of "family time," "playtime" and "social time" with friends.

Easter is the season of hope and joy.

We have hope because sin and death have been overcome -- once and for all. The darkness of despair has been vanquished, and light has come into our weary world, never to be permanently extinguished. Yes, there may be dark days and troubled times ahead -- for us as individuals and for the human family. But we Christians believe that the hope made possible by Christ's Resurrection will remain vibrant and unshakable until He comes again on the Last Day.

Every day, I look in the mirror and am not sure I know the man looking back at me. He looks familiar. But his hair is grayer than I remember, his beard white instead of brown, the face a bit fleshier and showing some lines.

The man I see is older than I expect -- 51. I'm not sure I know him.

When I close my eyes, I see the man I know.