Mother Teresa

I wonder if Mother Teresa felt Diana needed her. God speed to them both. KAREN SODIKOFF Del Mar

An Unquenchable Thirst Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service, and an Authentic Life Mary Johnson Spiegel & Grau: 526 pp., $27 It was common in the early part of the 20th century for large Catholic families in the United States to steer one or more children into religious life. Even Catholics in the boomer generation can probably recall being pressed to consider - if only for a minute - becoming a priest or nun. The majority of Catholics can only wonder what such a life might be like.

Messages of condolence for the death of Catholic missionary Mother Teresa in India may be sent to: Missionaries of Charity, Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road, Calcutta, West Bengal India

"The rich world has a poor conscience," wrote Christopher Hitchens in one of his assaults on the reputation of Mother Teresa, "and many people liked to alleviate their own unease by sending money to a woman who seemed like an activist for 'the poorest of the poor.'" He has called Mother Teresa a friend of poverty, rather than the poor, and a Roman Catholic fundamentalist. His view is rhetorically harsh, but worth reflecting on as one reads "Mother Teresa, CEO: Unexpected Principles for Practical Leadership," a paean to the leadership talents of history's most famous Albanian.

When it came time to say goodbye, he could not. John Wooden was dead. He was Tony Spino's friend and "I wouldn't leave him," says the UCLA athletic trainer who became Wooden's 24-hour caretaker in the coach's final years. "To see him slowly die in front of me was hard, yet I had a job to do to take care of him," Spino says. "But it really hit me when he died. I was the only one left in the hospital room and I cried my eyes out. "I couldn't go away. I waited for the mortuary to come and get him, bag him and tag him. It was so weird, it was like I wanted them to take me and not him. " It has been more than a year since Wooden's death, and Spino, 61, understands now Coach's undying devotion to his wife, Nellie, who passed 25 years before her husband.

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerry Brown said Saturday his campaign is about the future and forward-thinking ideas that will spur job growth and lift California out of its recession, such as the state's climate-change legislation that could be overturned by voters in November. "California is just an amazing place. While we do have a very high unemployment rate and have lost a lot of jobs the last couple of years, this has happened before, seven times since World War II … We always come back," he told more than 100 voters at a Faith Forum in San Francisco.

Aries (March 21-April 19): You'll be a rebel, willing to stand up and announce that you don't accept the prerequisites being dealt to you and your group. There will be many who agree with you. Taurus (April 20-May 20): Mother Teresa once said: "If you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love." You'll push past your previous emotional limits and find freedom and happiness. Gemini (May 21-June 21): Never mind the naysayers. You've already made a decision to tackle your challenge, and all that remains is to follow through.

I found King's synopsis of Lobdell's book interesting right up to the point Ms. King turned from book reviewer to preacher in her last three paragraphs, ending with a prayer, "May we all find some light . . . etc." I am not interested in King's religious views. I would like to have read more William Lobdell's. Why does his subtitle end with the phrase, " . . . and Found Unexpected Peace"? In what way did Lobdell find "validation for his "dark night" in Mother Teresa? Why was the title of the review "Living with a hole in his heart"?

Hospitals make the healer nervous, and before her lies a long hallway. But she pushes forward -- as she always does -- because she must. The man who needs her is waiting. Never mind the countless bodies she's seen, the bits of human flesh she's cleaned off the streets, the shattering screams of those she consoles after their loved ones have been slain. To the germ-phobic Alicia Rasin, today's hospital mission is scary. Her goal, as always, is to heal. The hospital setting is incidental; the wounds she salves are not physical but emotional.

Re "A doubting Teresa," editorial, Sept. 1 I am not convinced that "doubt" was Mother Teresa's greatest enemy. Doubt is a normal human condition. I believe that Mother Teresa's suffering had more to do with depression than doubt. I see doubt as a natural response to depression. Silence and emptiness speak of depression, not a loss of faith. I don't believe that Mother Teresa ever really doubted God's existence. As for me, it is nice to know that Mother Teresa was human.

The Sept. 3 issue of Time magazine teases newsstand browsers with a headline worthy of the Weekly World News: "The Secret Life of Mother Teresa." The impression that the exemplar of faith-based compassion was involved in something unsavory (dogfighting?) is dispelled by the fine print: "Newly published letters reveal a beloved icon's 50-year crisis of faith." Time's cover designers obviously think even that revelation falls into the shock/horror category. The story inside is more balanced.

After toiling through three negative, dyspeptic columns by Bill Plaschke from the Turin Olympics, I can think of only two plausible explanations for such jaundiced journalism: 1. He's still miffed that he wasn't in Honolulu covering the Pro Bowl. 2. Plaschke is a French surname, and he's under the mistaken impression that he's on assignment for Le Monde. SCOTT BUEHNER Calabasas Bill Plaschke's unrealistic and unjustly negative observations about the opening ceremony of the Olympics provided me with great optimism.