I grew up as a PK2 -- a preacher's kid, times 2. Both my parents were Congregational ministers, more interested in social justice issues than doctrinaire theology. As a college-affiliated pastor, my father was active in the Freedom Rider movement in the '60s and made several trips to the South...

So you're graduating into a tough economy, and job prospects are bleak. Or maybe you just want to take a break before going on to grad school. So what can you do with your "gap year"?

This is what a group of University of California-San Diego grads did: first, they...

When the subject of my daughter's high school spring break came up earlier this year, the family discussion turned to getting away for a week -- someplace easy to get to, fairly inexpensive and beachy. Hawaii was the frontrunner, but we decided we wanted something more exotic. It was that...

It was a little slice of life in Los Angeles: as I waited to board my flight to Boston earlier this summer, there stood actor Steve Carell, waiting patiently with everyone else to board. He wore black-rimmed glasses and had a computer bag at his feet, looking like any other...

Is Barack Obama's candidacy about race? Well, the Zen answer is that it both is and isn't.

Millions of Americans, most of them white, say they believe in the man, his message of change and hope, his intelligence and his capabilities. And he just happens to be African-American. His nomination...