There are only 35 shopping days left until Christmas. I'm keenly aware of this primarily because of those overcaffeinated Glee-show-choir-in-red-white-and-blue-alpine-sweaters-and-ear-flaps-making-high school-cheerleading-pyramids Gap ads that started running about a week ago.

Compassion is, by one definition, "a deep awareness and sympathy for another's suffering."

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; Therefore, we are saved by hope.

Saturday will be my 10-year-old son Vasco's first Halloween. He arrived in the United States from Africa just a few months ago, and as far as we know there is no Oct. 31 holiday in his native Malawi.

This weekend, at synagogues around the globe, Jewish congregations will read from the Torah the story of Noah, his ark and the big flood that nearly brought about the end of the physical world.