5 Min read Letter to wife in the event of death A Soldier's Own Obituary, NYTimes 3 March 1971 Major John Alexander Hottell, III Memorial Day AVAILABLE ON PODCAST Spotify iTunes I first saw this in my son's Bugle Notes 2020-2024, a pocket-sized book with mission and...
Stories
The Cure for Resentment and Cynicism
3 Min read 2 Book recs 1 Podcast rec Wisdom from the college graduate AVAILABLE ON PODCAST Spotify iTunes The cure for resentment and self-abnegation is gratitude. So says Douglas Murray, author and guest on the Good Fellows Podcast.* Murray asked his friend--a...
What Makes a Single Person’s Death Feel Large?*
4 Min read 2 Book recs, on writing and on jigsaws Toolbox, the Eulogy 1 Elegy, What is Dying? for the bereaved * AVAILABLE ON PODCAST SPOTIFY iTunes * Four friends died recently and three were my age: one from acute liver failure, one from Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS),...
Wild Horses Dragged Me Away
3 Min read Wild horses Assateague Island Estancia Alta Vista, Patagonia 1 Book, children's classic AVAILABLE ON PODCAST Spotify iTunes * Wild horses dragged me away.* In earnest. My road trip last weekend had a detour to Assateague Island off the Eastern Shore of...
Sleep on It: Darkness Helps Us See the Light
5 Min read Dreams Pattern seeker 1 Podcast rec Digit dork alert - Fibonacci, Golden Ratio AVAILABLE IN PODCAST Spotify iTunes * A three-for, a chief in triplicate, the Don at the podium was the Don of adolescence, the Don of agency, and the Don of business school....
The Edgeless Sound and the Night Owl
2 Min read Poetry for Emergencies Leonard Cohen Roshi's Poem The Poe Arch - Edgar Allan Poe Memorial Gateway AVAILABLE ON PODCAST SPOTIFY iTunes * TreeHouse view of dawn * The book falls open to Roshi's Poem. Though I had already read it, in my hurry up the stairs I...
“Good Luck and Smooth Sailing” in the Year of the Cat
3 min read Lunar New Year Vietnamese Zodiac, Cat vs Rabbit Year 2023 Writing tip, lyrics, backstory on Al Stewart's hit song * AVAILABLE ON PODCAST on SPOTIFY iTunes * Chúc mừng năm mới 2023!! Happy Lunar New Year! * It's the Year of the Water Cat according to...
Giving Thanks for Dissent and Cookies
3 Min read True Story On Gratitude and Dissent 1 Cookbook rec AVAILABLE IN PODCAST SPOTIFY APPLE PODCASTS * Giving thanks this time of year is a practice in gratitude. Gratitude is vogue, hip, lit. It's handy and eternal, an ever-ready virtue, making an appearance at...
On Perfect Love and Longing
4 Min read 2 Book recs True story AVAILABLE ON PODCAST Spotify Apple Podcasts E-Bar in SONO's Nordstrom * The espresso and warm froth quicken the senses, which I need for what I'm about to hear. I'm sitting at the E-Bar on a Tuesday with my mother. I like it here and...
All Souls’ Day and the Haunting of 4714
4 Min read True story Paranormal activity, Scott Barracks 1 Book rec * All Souls' Day (NOV 2) is the day to remember the dead, observed by Roman Catholics. It follows All Saints' Day (NOV 1) and All Hallows' Eve (OCT 31 or Halloween) which commemorate the saints, the...
“Kinda This, Kinda That” in the Mid-pack
3 min read Mid-pack running True story 1 Book rec, ancient Toltec wisdom AVAILABLE ON PODCAST On Spotify Apple Podcasts * Mid-life has its miseries. As does adolescence and old age, and while we're on the topic, puppy-dom. My 11 month-old shepherd-boxsky mix Simba is...
What to Say When People Thank You for Your Service
3 Min read True Story from the SMA (The Sergeant Major of the Army) Army Ten-Miler, race in Washington, D.C. with 20,000 runners * AVAILABLE ON PODCAST Spotify iTunes Sergeant Major of the Army Michael A. Grinston with West Point cadets * I want to share something I...
Charlie Munger and the Art of Swearing
5 Min read EXPLICIT language, Ages 13 to 103 True Story, investing Toolbox Essay and book rec, Ursula Le Guin Patton's Speech AVAILABLE ON PODCAST Spotify iTunes * Charlie Munger was making the rounds with investors. A living icon in the investing world, he was some...
On Fighting and Writing: Blackwing and Bruce Lee
5 Min read Bookstore and Bakery rec, Augusta Blackwing limited edition Writing tips AVAILABLE ON PODCAST On Spotify on iTunes I'm back from Georgia. I visited The Book Tavern and the Boll Weevil Cafe and Sweetery. My daughter hosted me and loves the cake. She's a fan...
Thoughts on Music and the Brain
5 min read True story 2 Book recs Songbook Collection AVAILABLE ON PODCAST on Spotify on iTunes Each morning, Simba crosses the end of the driveway tail first, three feet above the invisible fence. He is set down in the grass across the road, then walks his porter on...
What Makes a Speech Great? An Admiral Tells 3 Stories
6 min read Writer’s Toolbox Public speaking AVAILABLE ON PODCAST HERE Admiral McRaven commemorates the 11th Anniversary of Operation Neptune's Spear What makes a speech great? There are a lot of good speeches and good speakers. But a great speech is one you remember....
1000 Push-ups? Getting Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable
6 min read Memoir rec Work-outs, push-ups and running AVAILABLE ON PODCAST CLICK HERE On Spotify On iTunes Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. That’s the short take on Living with a SEAL*, 31 Days Training With the Toughest Man on the Planet. Jesse Itzler, the...
What I Learned Walking With a Friend
8 min read True Story Military service Road walking, trail notes AVAILABLE IN PODCAST - CLICK HERE Not 30 miles as the crow flies, that’s how far I was from my childhood home. It was gray and threatening rain, the time in spring that’s cool, tree buds just coming in,...
Firecracker and a Humble Queen
3 min read True story AVAILABLE ON PODCAST iTunes Spotify Google Podcasts You know those moments in your life that you will never forget? your first dog, first kiss, when Princess Diana got in a car accident. She died on my husband's birthday and I can remember waking...
A Valentine Canine and the Circle of Life
3 Min read 2 Book Recs AVAILABLE ON PODCAST Anchor.fm/emelle Spotify iTunes Herz is a good name for a dog adopted on Valentine's Day, especially for a shepherd mix because Herz is the German word for heart. The dark face and fawn body resembles the Belgian...
Books as Trophies? the Bibliophile vs the Bibliophagist
6 Min read 2 Book recs Music in Prose Toolbox, Ages 9 to 99 Word Nerd Special AVAILABLE ON PODCAST iTunes Spotify anchor.fm/emelle * * I have a book problem. It's a good kind of problem because books teach me a lot and I get to hang out and learn with the best. The...
The Sexy Semicolon, Really?
AVAILABLE ON PODCAST iTunes Spotify Anchor.fm Loved and loathed, sexy and sinister may not be modifiers that come to mind when you think of the semicolon. Cecelia Watson argues otherwise in her deep dive on this misunderstood mark, concluding a decade of research,...
Summer’s End
AVAILABLE IN PODCAST Spotify iTunes Anchor.fm Late August meant vacation. If in town it meant more parking, easy shopping and less traffic. As a child, the family business tethered me to an insular life, volatile at times in its routine and intimacies. At middle-age...
Alaska Mountains Will Spoil You for All the Rest
AVAILABLE ON PODCAST iTunes Spotify Anchor.fm Alaska mountains will spoil you for all the rest. Two weeks in Southeast Alaska re-shaped a life-long sense of this remote place, which earned its statehood over sixty years ago in 1959. The fjords and mountains...
Father and His Letters
AVAILABLE on PODCAST Anchor.fm Spotify iTunes For all the fathers, grandfathers, with us and no longer with us. I wrote this to my children yesterday, Sunday June 20th. Dear C, D, and N: I sat down and read my father's letters today, not all of...
April Dreams: a Story & Two Poems
AVAILABLE ON PODCAST iTunes Spotify Anchor.fm One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words. Goethe The bleachers were full and folks were talking...
Two Truths and a Lie, a Fools Game
Available on Podcast iTunes Spotify Anchor.fm Happy Spring to you on April Fools’ Day! This popular game Two Truths and a Lie is often used as an icebreaker and has a simple object, to guess which is false. On April First each year, I live to make people laugh....
I Met a Man at the Top of Chimney Rock
AVAILABLE ON PODCAST iTunes Spotify Anchor.fm “Would you mind if I take off my shirt?” he said. He asked me to take a photo and didn’t want to offend. I said I wouldn’t be offended. He smiled, posing atop the 315-foot granite monolith, the Broad River flowing...
Family Travel in a Pandemic – By Air and By Land
NOW AVAILABLE ON PODCAST Spotify iTunes Anchor.fm Travel highlights for Key West in bold or with hyperlinks for reference Key West In December, my family flew to Key West direct from Newark Airport. The flight was cancelled because of snow, a foot dumped north...
Giving Thanks in 2020 and Simon’s List
AVAILABLE ON PODCAST ANCHOR.FM SPOTIFY iTUNES GIVING THANKS in 2020 Some might say that’s a tall order but I think the tough times define us. I’ve been so blessed that this is the first Thanksgiving in 21 years when I will not have all of my children home. I...
Spirits of the Fall: Episode (4) Toddler Vision
AVAILABLE IN PODCAST iTunes Spotify Anchor.fm Spirits of the Fall: True Stories of the Season This is the fourth in a series of True Stories for the season, of eerie occurrences, real-life horrors, visits from the beyond and haunted rooms. Toddler Vision My...
Spirits of the Fall: Episode (3) Visits From Beyond
AVAILABLE IN PODCAST iTunes Spotify Anchor.fm This is the third episode in the series, Spirits of the Fall: True Stories of the Season, eerie occurrences, real-life horrors, ghosts and second sight. Visits From Beyond Last Night I...
Spirits of the Fall: Episode (2) Where the Driveway Ends
AVAILABLE ON PODCAST iTunes Spotify anchor.fm This is the second episode in the series, Spirits of the Fall – True Stories of the season: eerie occurrences, real-life horrors, visits from beyond, ghosts, and second sight. For this episode, I want to...
Spirits of the Fall: Episode (1) In the House
AVAILABLE on PODCAST iTunes Spotify Anchor.fm This is the first in a series of True Stories for the season, of eerie occurrences, deathly visits, haunted rooms, and childhood visions. EPISODE 1 In the House Fall is the season when...
Learning to Run
* AVAILABLE on PODCAST iTunes Spotify Anchor.fm I can’t say it’s something I like to do. It is something I ought to do and when I’ve done it I feel better, though it wasn’t always that way. I learned how to run a lifetime ago, when I joined the military. Life in the...
Would You Kneel? A College Coach and a Veteran on the National Anthem
Available on Podcast iTunes Spotify Anchor.fm [ [This letter is inspired by true events. The names and places have been changed and I am relying on mere memory. The details and ideas I relate, however, are fundamental truths for me.] “Good morning,” Tom said....
Birthday and Death Day, Catholics and Customs
PODCAST AVAILABLE iTunes Spotify Anchor.fm September 2 is a special day for me, the birthday of my daughter and the death day of my father. The cemetery is beautiful. I’ve always had a special regard for cemeteries in spite of the ghosts and the...
The Vulgar Parrot
Available on PODCAST ANCHOR.FM SPOTIFY iTUNES I’ve gotten to know my son better now that he’s left. I’ve been looking after his fish and turtle and I’ve been noticing his absence. Connecticut’s mandate had prevented gathering for his graduation in May, so...
On Becoming Sheepdogs, a Modern Fable
AVAILABLE ON PODCAST Anchor.fm Spotify iTunes In the wake of recent events regarding the tragic death of George Floyd and the ensuing protests, this letter seems more relevant than ever. It has been updated to relate my own experience and the role of the brave men and...
Why Nursing Homes Suck
PODCAST AVAILABLE Spotify Anchor.fm iTunes It was my first time visiting a nursing home and I don’t remember its name, but it was somewhere near Seal Beach. I was in California for spring training with the West Point track team and I spent my days working out...
This Bus is Empty – A COVID Photo Journey
This Bus is Empty My town opened park trails this week at April's end. Come walk with me on this photo journey, no mask and no worries. Let me show you what the COVID-19 Stay Home, Stay Safe mandate looks like in Connecticut, less than an hour...
Poetry Dinner Night – A Quarantine Scene
Does she or doesn’t she? Do you recognize this from the 1956 ad campaign? Does it elicit unsavory thoughts? This Hall-of-Fame advertising slogan was used for Clairol’s Hair Color and within six years seventy percent of women were dying their hair. Maybe you remember...
The Three Gifts – So what have you learned in 50 years?
AVAILABLE ON PODCAST iTunes Spotify Anchor.fm ** A child's note, three gifts from a parent, and Tolstoy's famous story ** I stumbled upon a note recently from my ten-year-old son, written in print with a pencil, the scrawl tending slightly downward. To...
On Presidents, Politics and War, and Poetry
AVAILABLE ON PODCAST iTunes Spotify Anchor.fm You ever have that moment when something you’ve believed for some time begins to shift and slip, leaving you a bit off-balance? I had that happen in a foundational way. Flipping to the date of a page-a-day calendar, I came...
A Book for Everyone, Even Nonreaders and Grinches
PODCAST INTERVIEW Anchor.fm Spotify iTunes PODCAST SUMMARY (please click on links above for full interview) I talked with editor, writer, and friend, Hayley Swinson, about books and how they help us get into the spirit of the holidays. She shared a...
Giving Thanks in 2019 – Looking Back on Life’s Big Questions
AVAILABLE ON PODCAST Spotify AnchorFM iTunes Each year at this time I give thanks for my blessings. Some years the mire and muck in life make that harder than others. This year, a blessing came as a surprise. I had a chance to talk to a friend’s mother who was...
TikTok Connect the Dots – the United States and China
AVAILABLE on PODCAST Anchor.fm Spotify iTunes My friend’s daughter Sue left to attend the University of Rochester this fall and had shared a story. The school website lists international students as twenty percent of the undergraduate population but Sue said...
A View from Above: an Army Commander in Afghanistan
Hear Colonel Mintz on PODCAST Anchor.fm Spotify iTunes *** Please listen to Podcast to hear full unedited and unscripted interview: Colonel Mintz shares the story and reflects on Afghanistan and the broader context of the war today *** What is...
On Poetry and Mondegreens and Teenagers
Listen to PODCAST iTunes Spotify I had a teacher in eighth grade named Miss Michaelson. She was a bit long in the tooth and had a jagged helmet of black hair. A big boned woman, she wore dresses which wrapped about her like robes on a Greek statue, the overall...
For the Love of Milk – When the Search for One Thing Leads to Another
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST iTunes Spotify I have a story to tell. This just happened and I’m not quite sure what to make of it. I am sitting in the back of a great Hall with soaring ceilings, dark murals on the wall. The place reminds me of the neo-gothic mess hall at West...
Whales, Migrations, & Back-to-School
APPLE PODCAST SPOTIFY PODCAST The sperm whale takes 40 years before it masters the global oceans, traveling with its mother for years and then joining a pod of wandering bulls. I heard this on National Geographic’s Great Migrations. These massive animals weigh up to...
In These Walls
NOW ON PODCAST at iTunes, Spotify, Anchor.fm/emelle Click Link below iTunes Apple Podcast - In These Walls Listen to Podcast on Spotify It was the middle of July and the middle of the week. I’d been hearing it for a few days, a faint sound, the kind you weren’t sure...
Kili at 50 – Hiking Kilimanjaro on the Machame Route in Six Days
NOW AVAILABLE ON PODCAST iTunes Spotify AnchorFM View of Kibo from atop the Barranco Wall “Did you train much?” my guide Evans Erick asked, the man with two first names, the grandson of a Maasai tribal chief. It was on the descent when he inquired in his...
Work Hard & Do the Right Thing – A Tribute to an Old Sailor
“Work hard and do the right thing,” was Ted Varga’s mantra. His son Stephen Varga shared this in his eulogy at the Hoyt Funeral Home. I had come to know Ted these past years through Meals on Wheels, when I delivered his Monday food. He was an old sailor with a brass...
Walking With Homer – A Connecticut Odyssey
Today I was in for a surprise, an unlikely and timely gift. It was a sunny Sunday in January, just breaking into the 30s after a cold spell. I put on yoga pants and dressed in layers, a puffy vest, a sweatshirt with black date stamps printed on the front, like the...
Little Free Library – One Year Anniversary
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Joseph Addison One year ago my children and a couple of West Point cadets helped install our little road-side library, digging a two foot hole, steadying the large bird feeder shaped box and its post with...
ON WALKING – Sedaris, Gornick, Cadogan, & Thoreau
I've come across the topic of walking in my reading, especially lately, as well as over the years. Writers walk and maybe the converse, while not logically true, is true on occasion. Walkers write. I need to walk, I must walk, but like my need to run, I am...
An Inaugural Weekend – Hats, Cats, & Spittin’ Mad in D.C.
We stayed in Old Town Alexandria this past weekend for a very different reason than the multitudes heading south from New York for the inauguration and protest march. We went to a volleyball tournament at the National Harbor Gaylord Convention Center. Even though we...
Veterans Day Sketches and a West Point Reunion
“It wasn’t a cold war for us,” Billy said. “They caught us in their nets, the Russians. Usually 200, 250 feet below.” The pub smelled of Buffalo wings. Dart boards and arcade games flanked the walls. “What’d you do?” “Sent a guy to cut us out. Had to come up to 75...
To the Rear March – A West Point Reunion – James Salter’s Lost Sons
I’ve been reading a collection of short stories by James Salter, the pen name for a 1945 West Point graduate born James Arnold Horowitz. I didn’t know anything about the former fighter pilot whose writing is so highly regarded in literary circles, a...
BitterSweet Dreams – The Tea Ceremony & Life’s Rituals
Woke from my dream at 4:00 AM with the word 'bittersweet' in my mouth, the accompanying silence and absence of flavor, a dark room, the image of my father's grave. The day before was the seven year anniversary of his death and the sun was shining, the hydrangea blooms...
The Nordic Chronicles – The Norwegian, the Doctor, & the Terrier
How can you tell the difference between a Norwegian introvert and a Norwegian extrovert? When she's talking to you a Norwegian introvert looks at her feet. A Norwegian extrovert looks at yours. I read this years ago, though the joke was about the Finnish. The...
Two Young Fish, Two Guys in a Bar, & David Foster Wallace – The Real Value of a Real Education
Story 1: There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the...
Cophetua and the Beggar Maid – Inspires Shakespeare, Tennyson, & Munro
There once lived an African King named Cophetua. He was wealthy and just, but he had no interest in women. Palace life and the women of the court, their dress and manner, drew out the opposite feelings in him: disinterest and disdain. He felt himself immune to love...
Alan Rickman & Kate Winslet on Women & Beauty
Today is International Women's Day. If you're like me, you saw it on Google's search page, and by holding your mouse cursor over the Google logo, you can watch the video and proceed to the link to learn more. So it's a good time to share this exchange between...
David Foster Wallace on Kafka’s “A Little Fable”
David Foster Wallace is my latest literary obsession: a state of consumption and immersion in his essays, conversations, speeches, and thoughts. DFW was an influential writer and professor, who had an assignment to review Bryan Garner's A Dictionary of Modern...
Papa Lao Yei & the Dumplings – A Lunar New Year Filled With Treasure
Happy Lunar New Year! 2016 is the year of the monkey. Those born in the year of the monkey are said to be funny, witty, perhaps a bit mischievous. There are twelve signs of the zodiac and the monkey is the 9th sign. I was born under this zodiac and admit to sharing...
Thinking Inside of the Box – A Merry Birthday
My mother was worried my gift would not arrive on time. I checked later that day. The mailman put the well taped package with nine priority mail labels and tracking sticker in my mailbox. Just narrower and taller than a shoe box, the Amazon prime tape showing...
A Christmas Memory – Truman Capote – “It’s Fruitcake Weather!”
Here is a gift, a thoughtful and powerful tale about the true spirit of the day. Regardless of your beliefs, there is something here for everyone. It's the best story I've read this season and I'm not sure I will ever think of fruitcake in the same way. The full...
Blooms in Winter – Faith Amid the Darkness
My mother’s plant has not bloomed for a long time, years she thinks. She gave it to us when she moved and it sits in the front window which faces south. The sun is lower in the southern sky during the winter since we live in the northern hemisphere. The light is weak...
A Gift for Readers – Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl Buck
Last night my twelve year old was tired from homework and nervous about two quizzes and a test today. She changed into her pajamas and came downstairs, her plush toy seal tightly in her arms, her brow wrinkled with worry. We sat by the Christmas tree and I read her...
“Do you feel lucky?” – The Luck Factor by Dr. Richard Wiseman
Here’s a story I shared with my teen-aged daughter when things weren't going so well in class. Martin and Brenda Martin stopped by the coffee shop one morning before his meeting. On his way in, he noticed a five pound sterling note by the door and he picked it up. He...
Three Tales from Dubrovnik
A Story Fit for a King Long ago, two royal suitors proposed marriage to the daughter of the King of Epidaurum who decided that whoever performed the better deed would win her hand. One man set out to sea and brought back the finest cloth in the world and the means to...
The World’s Most Powerful Pirate, a Woman – Jorge Luis Borges, the Widow Ching, & a Chinese Parable
Read Borges to understand the world and your place in it. I have experienced nothing like it before. Jorge Luis Borges was exceptional, distinguishing himself with his multi-lingual fluency; the Argentine writer learned English before Spanish from his father who was...
Can You Feel the Love? Thich Nhat Hanh – How to Love
Can you feel the love? Keeping Elton John out of this, when the emotional bank account is low, drained from winter and children and parents and life, I find consolation from the Vietnamese teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh. In his book How to Love, the Buddhist monk and...
The Sheep, the Wolf, & the Sheepdog – LTC Dave Grossman & American Sniper
AVAILABLE ON PODCAST Anchor.fm Spotify iTunes ON BECOMING SHEEPDOGS * ORIGINAL POST 2015-1-30 There are three types of people in this world: the sheep who go about their business, the wolf who feeds on the sheep, and the sheepdog who protects the...
A Year of Reading
If you could see a summary of the food you digested in 2014, you might find some surprises: 17 pounds of chocolate, 47 of bottles of wine, 5.7 servings of red meat a week, 1.3 fast food visits per week, the venial sin in this quarter is fried chicken or Five...
“The Woodbine and the Scholar” – Nguyen Dinh Nhac – What is my purpose?
What am I and what is my purpose? In Nguyen's poem, the scholar solves one of life's mysteries and I wonder if it is that simple: it is easy enough to see, if only we would look closely, or step far enough away, or ask a scholar who may happen to visit. If we shut our...
Crisis of Faith? Read What a Nurse Says
A friend wrote on Facebook that her son found out the truth about Santa Claus. The post generated a few comments, my own included which I will share here. MyLinh: Dear Laurie - please read this and maybe your son should too, the most reprinted editorial in history....
Beauty & the Buddha: the Royal Courtesan Visits Siddhartha
A woman of exceptional beauty came to see the Buddha. He was not there when she arrived, so the monks invited her and her son to wait for his return. A monk named Kaludayi had never seen a more lovely woman in his life. Having taken his vows as a monk not long...
“The more you buy, the less you have” – Parent’s Tao Te Ching – Verse 47
This is poem 47 from the Tao and the Parent's Tao. I wrote about William Martin's book because his simple words are more compelling than those of any 'parenting manual' I've read. (Link to Parent's Tao Changed my Attitude on 'Parenting') Martin writes the 81 poems...
Taken for Dead – Edgar Allan Poe in Minnesota – a True Tale
I visited Rochester, Minnesota last week and stayed at the Ivy Lodge where the brothers William and Charles Mayo once resided. Often confused with the Mayowood Mansion, today the lodge is the home of good friends who suffer an endless parade of visitors mistaking...
Two Monks and a Woman – A Zen Story not a Bar Joke
One day, two monks set out on a journey to a temple in a distant village. Along the way, they came to a shallow and fast moving river where a young woman waited, full of despair for fear of falling in. The monks looked at each other because the rules of their order...
High School Sports: Vulgarity vs. Virtue
Exhausted and losing, the Viking girls huddled on the court and referring to their opponents, team captain Idalis Figueroa said, “That’s not who we are. At King we believe in the virtues: kindness, integrity, respect, perseverance. This is how we play.” (This may...
The Woodcutter’s Tale – a Back-to-School Parable
Once upon a time, there lived a woodcutter who went into the forest to chop down wood. He felled 18 trees that day and brought them to the timber merchant. "You are the best woodcutter around," the merchant said and gave him his pay. The second day, the woodcutter...
The Age of Insolence & Politically Correct Nursery Rhymes
The stair and attic lights were on when I went upstairs. I whispered goodnight to my daughter, then reminded her she left the lights on. "David and Laura left them on," she said. I walked to David's room and told him to turn off the lights. "Why me?" he said. "I...
Message From an Iroquois Guide
The Iroquois guide sat quietly in the pine bark room, filled to the rafters with artifacts, out of place ones like the bison head and longhorn skull and recent ones like a dug out canoe discovered at lake bottom. Hand designed historical posters lined the walls...
Not in the Car! Not in the Street! Case of the Missing Wallet
It's easy to be a cynic. Police Officer Callinan met me in less than five minutes after I called yesterday. Together we reviewed the video footage from four different cameras in the town's burger joint. From the register to the table, we could see the exchange of...
More Than a Vietnamese Folktale – the Goddess of Compassion
“To my mind, Kuan Yin’s gentle form is a worthier symbol than the figure of a tortured being hanging from a cross or of an awesome father god.” John Blofeld I’ve known Kuan Yin for some years now as Quan Am, her Vietnamese name. My Vietnamese mother is Buddhist and...
Amy Sedaris on Dogs and Humans
Friends have been supportive about the loss of our dog because many have been there themselves. K sent along a quote which you might find insightful. Sometimes losing a pet is more painful than losing a human, because in the case of a pet, you were not...
Number One Deterrent for Burglars or Anyone Else Visiting Your House
Ten years ago our lives changed. A lot. We don’t do things by halves in our family, so we moved into a new home, I gave birth to my third child, and if that was not enough, we bought the biggest, baddest dog we could find. A third pet. I’ll share more about...
The Sybil – Par Lagerkvist – Summary & Review
The Oracle of Delphi and the Divine in All of Us The Swedish author Par Lagerkvist won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1951 and this story is worth your time; it’s just 154 pages and readable in a day. Some readers get upset because he combines Greek paganism and...
White Wolf Black Wolf, A Cherokee Folktale
Here’s a folktale that had a lasting and profound influence on a close friend. It’s also one I shared with my children. A group of Cherokee children gathered around their grandfather, filled with excitement and curiosity. That day there had been a tumultuous...