(2-minute read) In the next series of posts, I will be covering the development and importance of “habits” from different points of view. Recently, I finished two projects related to the fundamentals of the fundamental social relationship: parent and child. I make that claim because if you take away this connection we’d be collectively off […]
(~three minute read) The changes we’ve gone through as human beings since the end of the last millennium are catching up with us. Night after night, the evening news reels capture the disturbing patterns, and other media sources remind us of the general decline of mental health. This isn’t a doomsday speech but an attempt […]
On New Year’s Eve, my wife and I made the traditional appetizers for dinner and watched a movie. It’s a fun ritual we’ve had since before children. The only difference is the awake time. Back then we could bring in the New Year and smooch at midnight. It’s wonderful to know the constancy of who […]
The opening line in M. Scott Peck’s The Road Less Travelled offers: “Life is difficult.” The book was a bestseller and one that I’m sure helped many. That line has stuck with me but over the years something about the wording bothered me. When it finally occurred to me—the stickiness and the curiosity of those […]
In 1983 I taught my first lesson as a teaching professional in racquet sports. I got paid and when I think back, it was barely worth the price. But you have to start somewhere. I love sports and have as far back as memory serves. Playing and trying to get better taught me more than […]
Emptying your desk, a space you occupied for a time before iPhones, represents the accidental version of a time capsule. I don’t question why I kept anything because the answers fall into just a few categories: time, curiosity, or didn’t want to lug it home. In the depths beyond the dust, I found newspaper articles […]
Play is a common word. We can tell when it’s happening—playing—but we have a difficult time describing what it really is. “Fun” seems to be a major default. But we end up in very different spaces when we say, “fun,” some of which categorize play as a “frivolous” activity. Describing play is similar to describing […]
Somewhere along the way, the media presentation of fatherhood shifted. And not in a flattering manner. I say “somewhere” because I’m not really sure when it happened. I just know we went from “Father Knows Best” (yes, I know that is not always the case—but hold on…) to a two-dimensional character named after one of […]
Dusty memories arise with the coming of another birthday. And the years seem to have shrunk as if another victim of inflation. With technology at high speed, my memories center on things from my youth barely worth remembering (think “jingles”) or that barely seem real. Like the first family car I can recall, a Plymouth […]
When New York Yanker slugger, Aaron Judge, launched his 60th home run into the left field seats, a large cluster of fans eschewed safety for the dog pile of a prized souvenir. Emerging from the humanity, a young man who attends a college in New York, also a baseball player, immediately sought out security to […]
A Father's Path 