My daughter fell in love with the Nicaraguan people after nearly a year teaching at orphanages in the capital city and in the rural mountain areas of this Central American country. These orphanages were filled with children the government had taken from parents in this desperately poor nation—you can only imagine the abuse and neglect they had endured. Today she has a master’s degree in Latin American literature—an unusual subject perhaps—but it has given her a deep understanding of these people, their history, and aspects of the modern culture created by circumstances beyond their control. She has provided much wisdom

Tonight, I was able to stop time. I had to take my son back to college. It was dark and warm, with an early September breeze hinting at fall. As we drove through the night with the top down, he asked if he could play some new songs over the car speakers. He was chatty and silly, everything an 18-year-old who is trying to get used to living in another location sounds like. He is still a boy, but I was driving him to his future, away from me, where the boy will transform into a man. At least, that’s