I haven’t read it yet, but my spiritually engaged and enlightened friend Shelley Waln recommends a new book by a close associate of hers: Bonnie McEneaney’s Messages: Signs, Visits and Premonitions from Loved Ones Lost on 9/11, just out from William Morrow.

Close readers of Watching the World Change might remember the section about Robbie Morrell, who lost her husband, George, in the September 11 attacks—and then felt George’s presence through encounters that she had with a psychic (pages 273-274). A similarly gripping and otherworldly story is described in the footnote on page 393-394, in which my friend Don Johnston discusses an experience of “connecting” with Tommy Palazzo, who also perished that day.

Finally: indications of a preliminary settlement deal for rescue, relief, and reclamation workers suffering health problems as a result of their work at Ground Zero. This, after the scuttling of the settlement deal in March.

Well, at least there's one silver lining: it was, in fact, a swifter outcome than the settlement of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. That deal took 20 years—two decades for compensation to reach those whose homes, lives, and livelihoods were ruined by the Alaskan oil spill. (And when the BP blowout is finally contained in the Gulf of Mexico, how long will it take to settle that class-action suit?)

If you get a chance, please check out this blog post I wrote for VanityFair.com called, "A Kinder, Gentler P.L.O.?," which has raised hackles among many of my Jewish pals from Chicago. (Full disclosure: I am Jewish...and from Chicago.)