Reflection on this month’s theme of truth-telling has led me to this question: What did I forget to tell my adult children? This has to do with anxiety I have for them and their future—but also for their outlook on the future. Is there reason for hope? My answer comes in part from Steven Pinker’s book: Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.

Rev. Dean Staffanson has served terminally ill patients and families for fourteen years as a hospice chaplain for the Gundersen Health System. He is an ordained Unitarian Universalist community minister and received his Master of Divinity from the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana. Dean is a member of this fellowship and is grateful for the fellowship’s endorsement of his community ministry.