Palermo, Sicily is at the very southern end of Italy. For millennia, Palermo has stood as the crossroads of civilizations. Traders, sailors, and invaders have landed on her shores and stayed. In this ancient city on the edge of Europe, baroque churches compete with open air markets to attract attention. Worth the visit is Palermo’s Palatine Chapel. It was built by Norman kings in the 12th century and houses some of the world’s most beautiful mosaics.

Divisions in America go deeper and wider than state lines. Ethnicity, housing, income, race, faith, abortion, euthanasia, and, with increased rancor, politics: all these separate us one from the other. A fractured government. Politicians constantly belittling and embarrassing one another, intent to destroy the political careers of each other. A surfeit of disdain against organized religion. Schools failing to educate our inner-city poor. Streets strewn with the homeless and the addict. Many people rightly recognize that something is fundamentally awry with our society.

The Alka-Seltzer’s “Spicy Meatball” commercial first aired on television in 1969. It became an instant classic. A middle-­aged man sat at the kitchen table. His wife stood beside him waiting to hear him compliment the spaghetti and meatballs she had just served him. The actor took a bite of one meatball and then messed up his line. He did it again and again. He just could not get out the sentence “Mamma mia, that’s a spicy meatball.” His accent was off; the words jumbled. Yet, take after take, he ate another meatball. Finally, the commercial ended with someone saying, “Sometimes you eat more than you should. And when it’s spicy besides — mamma mia, do you need Alka-Seltzer!”