Arias of the Human Spirit

From Cain and Abel through Dago Mike, one of the biggest threats to the human species has always been responding to the breakdown in relationships. The big three tasks, as posited in this amazing inaugural book of original stories by Dr. David Rinaldi, are how to forgive, how to atone, and how to resolve those breakdowns.

Part One contains twenty stories based on both Rinaldi’s own life experiences and fertile imagination: “I hope you will read these stories as they stand and accept them as one person’s attempt to understand and describe the iconic, age-old story of Cain and Abel.”

Part Two contains seven stories of an Italian-American private detective who finally finds redemption in his work. “Somehow these stories about the same guy (whom I call “Dago Mike” because I’m Italian and that makes it OK) have something to do with the themes of this book, which are restitution and reconciliation and renewal.”

At the end of each story, Dr. Rinaldi offers three simple but profound questions about how the story relates to the reader’s own experience: “Answer them or don’t, as you wish, now or later or never.”

Advance Praise for Arias of the Human Spirit:

To open to any page in Arias of the Human Spirit is to suddenly find yourself sitting with an old friend, sharing the personal, difficult, and yes, irresistibly human stories that make up the of the stuff of our everyday lives. — L.C. Fiore, author, Coyote Loop, 2021 Book-of-the-Year Awards’ Honorable Mention, Chicago Writers Association

David Rinaldi's profound and thought-provoking stories reveal the hidden aspects of humanity, exploring themes of atonement and forgiveness with a depth that touches the heart and challenges the reader. — Juliana Cesano, National Secretary, Theosophical Society in America

Proverbs for the soul. In this thoughtful collection of pint-sized parables, David Rinaldi asks us to look more closely at the lives and challenges of our fellow life-travelers. He asks us to truly see them, for their stories could well be our own. — Barbara Pawlikowski, author, The Cost of Compassion

Rinaldi's writing is humanistic, soulful, and authentic. We can hear his voice in every story as he invites us to (sometimes simultaneously) experience heartbreak and joy alongside him. David is less narrator than companion along the journey of empathy and enlightenment. — Lewis Fermaglich, pediatrician, Washington, D.C.

About the Author: David Rinaldi worked as a respected pediatrician until his retirement and then began writing stories he called his “little blurbs.” Now, at age 76, he has compiled many of them in Arias of the Human Spirit: “If I could write music, they would be brief arias: sad, mournful, joyous, but mostly hopeful.”