Although I did not emerge victorious in the race for legislator in Nassau County’s 14th District, I did learn some valuable lessons about my country and my own beliefs along the way.

“Please have no leniency on me,” Sister Rice once said at trial. ”To remain in prison for the rest of my life would be the greatest honor you could give me.”

Can a ritual that comes a year and a half late possibly mean what it was originally supposed to? No. But it ended up having a deep meaning entirely its own.

First: You are not required to talk about sex in the confessional.

The Buttigieg discourse is about sexuality, class, money, work, fatherhood, legislation. But do you know what has not been talked about at all? The mother.

Whatever a person’s experiences and fears of confession have been, going to confession behind a partition has a tremendous amount to offer us.