These homilies are the result both of experience and inspiration and in places one or two may appear to exhibit the touch of God. They give gist for thought and supply that small measure of guidance, correction or understanding that every person needs from time to time. They are secular although they carry often the spirit of a religious conviction. In the media and from the pulpit, the lessons are most often hortatory, controversial or opinionated and far from "fair and balanced." Once can dip into these homilies and find, if not some comfort at least wit and common sense. Many fall into that last category, an increasingly scarce kind of insight and presence of mind in contemporary America.