I have a Polish mother-in-law.  This is not the beginning of a politically-incorrect ethnic joke. It reflects belated recognition that Stanisława’s -- now Stella’s -- ethnicity has been a source of pride and identity to her, and has provided impetus for tolerance and good works throughout her entire life. As a teen-aged victim of the Nazis during WWII, Stella sacrificed her adolescence to protect her father. She spent years in slave labor in exchange for her father’s release from an SS jail, where he had been held for refusing to aid the Nazis.  When she married, she sacrificed her attachment to Catholicism to proffer respect to her husband’s Eastern Orthodox rituals, reasoning that both communities worship the same unique God, and that family integrity mattered more than church-specific forms of liturgy.  She seems well satisfied with her life and continues to give endlessly of herself to help friends, neighbors, family, and her...(Read Full Article)