Bob David (BD): Bill, at age 84, you are about to retire as chaplain at Boston Medical Center. You’ve been there for 18½ years, which means you were around 65 when you came onboard. Can you give a rundown of your rich history and experience before then, which I understand was not without controversy? ...more

One Christmas day the whole family came together, as was the custom: my father, stepmother, younger and older sisters, older brother, possibly two grandmothers, maybe an aunt and uncle, and, I recall, various step-relations.

I was 15 or 16 years old. We exchanged gifts and consumed a great big midday meal, desserts and everything. The pressure of the festivities had me ready to explode. So my brother and I decided to leave the family gathering, as was our custom, for some adventure of our own. ...more

The return of Johnny the buck last fall gave me four pregnant does this spring. The expectant mamas: Baraka, Mocha Swirl (Baraka’s kid of last season), Yasmina, and Joey. They were all due around the second week of April; I was headed to Haiti for a six-day film shoot,* planning to return in time for their births. ...more

As far as I know, aside from stamping out ice cream cones in a factory when he was a teenager, my father’s entire working career revolved around the selling of alcoholic beverages. He began as a high school student helping out in the tavern purchased by his father, who had accumulated a fortune building houses before losing it in the Crash of 1929 and trying another avenue to get back on his feet. ...more

The atmosphere at CAB Health & Recovery Services and at other holding facilities for people facing alcoholism and addiction that I have spent time in is full of fear. A “waiting for death” syndrome engulfs the people there. Call them patients, residents, inmates, or detainees—regardless of the label, the experience is the same. I saw fear and dependence often during the six months I resided at CAB in 1997-98. I have seen it often when I have returned, as I still do occasionally, to carry the message of hope to the 170 or so men held there. ...more

Xiao Bien and Da Bien
Pet ownership comes with responsibility. There is one obligation that my wife, daughter, and relatives all shun. They run the other way. That duty is to pick up and clean up after Toby meets his sanitary requirements: pees and poops, performs #1 and #2, does xiao bien and da bien (Chinese)—i.e., does his business. ...more

I had this dream that I was dreaming. This dream-within-a-dream goes like this: ...more

Toby is one of God’s little creatures—a happy, vibrant, and friendly puppy. Loyal and affectionate, Toby has helped me recover from my strokes by relieving the tremendous stress with which I, a workaholic, have for so long lived. ...more

When I arrived at the cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, Gene Mason was lying in his bed, conscious but sedated. He was suffering from complications after a six-way coronary bypass surgery—what Gene called his “triple double.” His blood pressure had been so high for so long that he had developed congestive heart failure, making it necessary for the operation.

Gene had really fallen apart this time, physically. ...more

Some of the most difficult yet profound experiences of my 65 years transpired during the course of five journeys I made to Africa. Four of them took me to Burkina Faso, where I spent many weeks among the Dagara people in the remote tribal village of Dano, near the border with Ghana. Because of its remoteness, the essential elements of the indigenous world had survived in this area despite some 500 years of European colonization. I went there with a teacher, Malidoma Somé, to immerse myself in the rudiments of that world. ...more