By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this column, click the play arrow below.I thought I was finished with graduations.Yes, I still have kids in school, but personally, my last graduation took place quite a while ago, after an intense four years of college. Like graduation from elementary and high school, that one was a passage into a new, exciting world full of promise and potential. But recently, I received another [...]

By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this post, click the play arrow below.Shame. Embarrassment. Humiliation.The hat trick of negative emotions were all experienced last week by the 14-year-old teen forced by his mother to stand in front of their home wearing a sign proclaiming, “I lie, I steal, I sell drug(s), I don’t follow the law.”At least I hope that’s what he was feeling.Indiana mother Dynesha Lax resorted to the [...]

By: Mary Fran BontempoTo hear an audio version of this post, click the play arrow below.With the exception of their shame-faced sabotage of the Nazi vehicles in pursuit of the beloved Von Trapp Family, the nuns in the movie The Sound of Music were positively angelic, serenely walking around their abbey and singing, wondering what to do about their “wild-child,” Maria. I had a slightly different experience.As a six-year-old Catholic school child growing [...]