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.