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
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
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
When The Tall Daddy and I split up, I moved out in January and was in a really bad position financially until August, after I had gotten one or two paychecks. The following is something I wrote at the time. I have edited it slightly, just to take out or clarify references to things that … Read more
The other day, I wrote about contributing to my school community. Another great thing happened in that little piece of the day. I’ve been struggling with many of my classes. Without getting into too many details, my classes are not your typical elementary band classes, because that approach hasn’t worked with the populations I teach. … Read more
Four years ago, I wrote a post on Facebook about cancer prevention. It’s full of frustration. Wrapped up with the frustration—though not so evident in the writing—is a solid dollop of “I get it.” A month ago, I lost a good friend to cancer. In the month since then, I’ve learned about three more diagnoses … Read more
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Clearly Newton was not in the social sciences. I saw a bumper sticker: Keep talking, I’m reloading Besides poor punctuation… What makes one an acceptable response to the other?! I’m completely flabbergasted by transgressions, real or perceived, that some people regard as sufficient to shoot … Read more
Treat others the way you want to be treated. We get stuck in the details. “Well, I like pedicures, but if the person I gift one to doesn’t like pedicures, then they’re not happy even though I treated them how I would like to be treated!” That’s not what it means. We want to be … Read more
A while back, I was at a going-away party at a school. There were sandwiches, chips, etc. set out cafeteria-style, and some of the lunch ladies were helping distribute it. lunch lady: Do you want some chips? me: No thank you. LL: It’s OK to cheat. me: It’s not cheating. LL: You’re on a diet. … Read more
During the course of conversation and brainstorming with my group during a training, someone mentioned that they have children whose parents put them in an ensemble (band or orchestra) to “get over their shyness.” First of all, in a traditionally-run ensemble, there’s not a lot of verbal interaction between players, so that’s not really going … Read more