As I get ready to retire from academia, I look forward to expressing some of my thoughts again in hopes of stimulating some healthy and intelligent discussion. I recognize that many of my views would be considered liberal or progressive by some people. I can only say that what I offer comes from the heart and has the best interests of our planet and its inhabitants in mind. I seek truth, in a relative and absolute sense, and realize that I do not necessarily possess the truth.

I have committed my professional life to the improvement of lives through education for nearly 50 years and, for fewer years, clinical counseling as a psychologist and trainer of counselors. My spirituality is anchored in contemplative Catholicism and Buddhist thought and my personal contemplative meditation practice.

One of my challenges today is that of helping to promote wellness and serenity in my loved ones, friends, colleagues, students, and clients during these incredibly difficult times of the novel coronavirus. I acknowledge, as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggests, that it is pretty difficult to find that place of serenity and well-being when you are out of a job and don’t have the money to pay necessary bills and put food on the table and you feel overwhelmed at just the thought of venturing outside of your house for fear of becoming infected.

One of the problems we have had in our American society that has made this situation worse is our failure to place a higher priority on the welfare of all of its citizens over corporate wealth. The power for big decisions is in the hands of those whose greed has helped to widen the economic gap in recent years. How telling is it that stimulus money has gone first to large corporations ahead of truly small and local businesses, as we see at least a few of them return the funds they received from the federal government that need to go those who really need it for survival. It is time to take action to install leaders who truly care about all of our people and will act according.