“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Who defines “broke”? So much of what has been going on socio-politically here for decades (centuries?) really boils down to this question, I think. People yearning for “the good old days” were, as far as they were concerned, part of a system that was working just fine. Ain’t … Read more
In my elementary band classes, I’ve spent a fair amount of energy this year on a few non-musical topics: grit (a focus of my whole team), self-awareness, and emotional safety. Grit is a topic for another day. Self-awareness is necessary for any of this to be useful. You can’t change a thought or behavior that … Read more
There seem to be three ways of looking at the plight of other people in relation to one’s self. 1: I don’t want anyone to suffer like I did. This person wants to mentor/coach people through it, or try to fix the problem entirely to decrease the number of people who go through the same … Read more
I’m here today to give some confidence to the slow and less enthusiastic among us. I’m a runner. I’m slow. Lately, I’ve been running 12- to 12.5-minute miles. At the fastest I’ve ever been, I ran 5K in 29:20 (or something close to that). Once. (I had only one other 5K under 30 minutes. It … Read more
“The most daring thing you can do with your life is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.” Attributed to Kurt Vonnegut. I would love to do this, but I have no idea how. Thoughts?
One of my biggest sadnesses in living in an apartment was not having space for garden beds (or not wanting to have to take out beds before moving out). I was happy to have a house with a yard when The Climbing Daddy and I bought this one! We’re in our second spring of gardening, … Read more
This is endlessly interesting to me. (To you, I don’t know.) The differences between what I like the best and put out there and what y’all like the best of what I’ve put out there. There’s also a divide lately between WordPress followers and “everyone else” (who is mainly made up of Facebook followers) between … Read more
One of the reasons Americans are bad at making health choices or long-term financial planning is that we are disconnected from our future selves. There have been a couple of studies in the financial realm where, if shown an age-progressed photo of themselves, people invest more in their 401K options than if they’re shown a … Read more
A week or so ago, I had a dream that I remembered when I woke up. A few details of it have stuck with me, and it’s been turning over in my head a bit… The dream below; side comments in brackets: I was racing my third Ironman. [I have never raced anything close to … Read more
For my first marriage, we were married in a church by a priest—one of the most thoughtful people I’ve ever met. In our meeting with him, he asked us, “What do you want guests to get out of your wedding ceremony?” What? This was a question I had never thought of, had never heard anyone … Read more