Cathy Ammlung

What do Star Trek’s Mr. Spock, insurance policies in Japan, Swedish residential occupancy statistics, and American bowling leagues have in common?

The Rev. Rob Morris’s reflections for the fifth anniversary of the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, (where he ministers) were published in “Forum Letter” as a sadly apropos response to the recent shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Learning about — and from — a different perspective ought to be widely taught and practiced; but in recent years, it seems to be a skill as much in decline as the art of cursive writing.

When I read a recent story about the low level of home ownership by African-Americans, I winced. We’re white, middle-class homeowners, with good credit scores and decent savings. If it was this hard us to get a mortgage, how difficult is it for first-time minority applicants to buy a house?

The hypothetical horrible is often the enemy of the good. When we begin by imagining the worst-case scenarios under which we are enjoined to be honest, faithful, forbearing or forgiving, we may become so discouraged, terrified, or outraged that we refuse to try at all! That’s a tragedy.

Mortimer Adler, the philosopher and chairman of Encyclopaedia Britannica authored a book titled “How to Think,” which I found puzzling. Don’t people already know how to think? Many years later, I’ve revised my verdict: We really don’t know how to think.

My maternal grandmother's brother was a Skid Row bum. Once an executive with Bell and Howell, Uncle Art fell prey to chronic alcoholism and lost pretty much everything. For many years, he lived in a single-room-occupancy (SRO) hotel on Belmont Street in Chicago.

The topic of global climate change is complex and controversial. It has become a vehicle for advancing agendas, many of them non-scientific. The little that I know about climatology fuels my resolution to say little — and to avoid the bloviations of politicians and movie stars. It’s hard enough to

Touch — especially initiated by others — makes us vulnerable. They’re literally “pressing our flesh.” That can be a blessing or a curse. Skin is sturdier than a soap bubble’s surface; but the wrong kind or intensity of touch can make bodies and psyches “pop."

Princess Diana popularized the slogan: “Practice Random Kindness and Acts of Senseless Beauty.” I’d like to replace it with “Practice Deliberate Kindness and Acts of Sensible Virtue.”

It sounds hokey, but giving thanks is a way in which we light one small candle rather than curse the darkness that presses down upon us. And its light may shine far beyond our own footsteps.

Narcan, detox facilities, and just and humane laws are necessary tools. But moving beyond saving bodies to saving lives will require addressing the despair, dysfunction and sheer loneliness endured by too many who succumb to the beckoning numbness of addiction.

Ammlung: A (relative) ray of sunshine

How do you solve a problem like Hurricane Maria?

Ammlung: On insurance, we're between a flood and a hard place