I visited with the hosts of the Strengthening a Palliative Approach to Long-Term Care project podcast to discuss caring for a partner with dementia.

The authenticity of first-person experience deserves its place on the page, but a failing mind describing how his mind is failing is a sorrowful story. 

Having a roof over one's head is a matter of survival; acquiring it may require a bit of working the system. O Henry spoofs how it works in an old story but not much is new. 

The collective power of singing together can be used for good or ill. National anthems tend to blood, violence, and exclusionism of all sorts, and yet we sing them as if they somehow represent us.  David Pate finds that only 10 countries in the world have anthems that would be suitable for an elementary school play, and suggests we should do better. 

There is evidence that mankind as a whole is better off now than ever before, but simultaneously we seem to be embracing nastiness, incivility, hatred. Science explains this trend and literature shows us the way out. 

Dr. Jane Philpott says Canada has an insurance system, not a health system, and proposes a radically alternative approach parallel to the public education system. She poses spiritual health as fundamental to physical and mental health and shares some wisdom.

Our community has recently gained profile for successfully completing a community bond raise in jig time, to support affordable housing. The exposure, which included CBC TV National News, set the table for an invited op ed in the Saturday Star.

Pretty much everyone agrees we need to do something about our housing problem. But what's the right move? Depends on what you want to achieve...

To a hammer, everything looks like a nail, which makes a conversation between a hammer and a wrench -- or between generations -- difficult. But what if we tried to bridge the gap?

Celine Dion told Adrienne Arsenault that she would sing again, and she did -- flawlessly, they say, although she looks liminal -- at the opening of the Paris Olympics. This column examines that process through a Freire lens.

Our literary icon has clay feet! Where to point the finge of blame when sexual assault within the family becomes a secret that must be kept?

The Movie Man mirrors our concern about who will carry on our life work and care for what we love when we are gone -- and will they forgive us for leaving heaps of stuff?

Protest encampments on campus are becoming as common as daffodils in spring, but what do they signify? Does the student unrest of the 1960s have anything to teach us?

Alice Munroe wrote about proper ladies who didn't behave properly: why might that be?

Patriarchy, the rule of the father, makes mothering difficult and fathering impossible. Except in oases of matriarchy.

Four movies that together give the full monte on mothering. C'mon, Cmon, give it a try.

Insecurity is an existential element of life; community is the cure.

The fourth role -- competing in the economic world -- that women are expected to play may sink the boat.

This factoid world makes decisions increasingly difficult; take a time out to become friends with ambiguity and uncertainty.

I propose a 3-step process for doing emotional laundry to keep mental unease at bay.