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In the waiting room of my car dealership's service department, I was hoping to hear that the needed repairs would be covered by the warranty. I didn't want to hear that the transmission of my car had been damaged by something I had done or failed to do.  I didn't want to admit that I had allowed some ill-equipped fast-lube mechanic to tinker with my transmission, thus making it my responsibility to pay for the repairs.  I wanted the dealer…

The wind swirling trash on Kirov Street, the main thoroughfare of the district of Perchersk--an extension of Kiev--rose unhindered from the Dnieper, the river masking the smell of war, a mixture of the exhaust fumes of trucks, tanks, mobile artillery pieces, horses, wet uniforms, field kitchens, dead bodies rotting under collapsed masonry, and the smell that shook him with fear: the odor of singed hair and burned bodies. Earlier, when he reported in at the field hospital to receive his…

Why do the priest and the Levite pass by the man on the side of the road, and why does the Samaritan stop? What is going on inside their heads? What is going on inside their hearts? What is motivating them? Why did the first two keep going and the other one stop? While these may be simple questions to ask, they are elusive to answer, because the parable doesn't tell us why these men do what they do. It…