Eden

A wise friend recently reminded me of the absurdity of the Garden of Eden story. Two people are in paradise. They have a bounty of food, are surrounded by endless beauty, and perhaps most importantly, have the companionship and love of one another. And yet, it is not enough.

It is an apt metaphor for the state we often find ourselves in today. Most of us are blessed to have enough of what we need – someone who loves us, food on the table and more than enough beauty in the world to go around.…


Hoarding

While aimlessly clicking through the channels, we stumbled upon the show Hoarders: Buried Alive and found ourselves rubbernecking. Wanted to drive by faster and on to the next station but unable to peel our eyes away from this personal disaster.

In the show, extreme hoarders are literally buried in their own home. Unable to navigate from room to room, possessions buried under possessions. Infestations of material accumulation co-mingling with excrement from both pets and pests.


Breeze

I received an email Tuesday morning. It was from my editor wishing me a Happy Book Birthday and telling me to “soak it all in.”

I struggled to do that all day. While I wanted to focus on what should be a very cool experience, I found it difficult to let go of everything else going on in my life. All the other emails needing my attention, a to-do list that never seems to get shorter, kids who want rides, a dog who needs walking – let alone all of what is happening in the world.…


Birthdays

Friday was our dog Scout’s birthday. He turned nine. In “people years” he is almost a senior citizen – although he still often acts like a puppy.

I learned recently that the smaller the animal, the slower time moves for them. This partly explains why it’s so challenging to swat a fly. You are moving in slow motion to them.

Each day, a staggering 70,000 puppies are born in the United States.…


Summer

It’s hard to believe it’s almost August. Summer is already on the backstretch.

Before this season of relaxation and restoration began, I made a list. A plan of sorts about how I would use all the time freed up from teaching and coaching obligations to achieve an ideal summer. It included taking up biking, getting in ten rounds of golf and a couple of tennis games, playing the guitar more often, teaching myself piano and going on a family vacation.…


Real

As I sat outside drinking my morning coffee, reading Lydia Millet’s wonderful book, We Loved it All, I was so struck by a passage that I took a picture of it for safe keeping and read it aloud to those sitting with me.

“Happiness is a wavering mirage that shimmers on the horizon, a promise of sudden deliverance that supports the passive attendance of our lives.…


Connections

On my walk to our local library to write this, a stranger stopped me, noticing the logo on my t-shirt. “Penn State, I grew up and went there. You?” I confirmed I did and what ensued was a genuinely nice five minute conversation about our experiences in Happy Valley. We exchanged pleasantries and names and a connection based on an institution two hundred-fifty miles away and a time decades earlier was made.…


Rollercoasters

“That was everything I wasn’t expecting.”

Those were the first words my daughter uttered after getting off The Lock Ness Monster rollercoaster last week. Her face reflected the familiar residuals of joy, thrill, and terror.

We had just arrived at the theme park and remarkably there was no line. So we threw caution to the wind and jumped on without noticing the multiple vertical loops and steep drops.…


History

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” It is attributed to the philosopher George Santayana.

While this may be true, I believe there is another less dire and more wonderful reason to study history – it expands our appreciation, awe and wonder with our present world.

Consider that everything around you right now has an origin – a beginning of its history.…


Bonds

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Now on to this week’s post….…


Coffee?

On my way to the library where I often work, I stop to get a cup of coffee from the local diner. I could easily bring coffee from home, but I enjoy the ritual of stopping by. The coffee is great. I enjoy saying hi to the people working there. A few dollars is well worth the price to support the people and business that help me start my day.


Weather

This morning I read a story about Captain James Stagg, the chief meteorological advisor to General Eisenhower and the man responsible for making the “go” or “no go” call for the invasion of Normandy. As the article lays out it was an incredibly complex decision not merely dependent on “good weather” on the day of the invasion but required various favorable conditions related to visibility, low tides, phase of the moon, and wind speeds over the course of multiple days.…


Community!

I left work early one day last week to watch our school’s girls softball team in the sectional semifinals. This was not the first nor last time I’ll leave work for youth sports. What made this different is that I didn’t have a kid playing in the game.

The community was understandably excited by the team advancing this far. I had friends with girls on the team – many of which I knew since they were knee high.…


Check-in

Over the last several months, I’ve confided in a handful of family and friends about some challenges I’ve been facing. Without fail, they were supportive; listening with care and offering wise perspective

A few days ago, however, I realized that with a few expectations, most have never followed up to check in and see how I was doing. Asking if things had gotten better or if I wanted to talk.…


Math

Thank you for making it this far. The mere mention of math can sometimes turn people away.

Yet math’s role in helping us understand the world is so critical. The astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson once said, “Math is the language of the universe.”

I was thinking about math in its simplest form while reading the paper this morning. As one might expect these days, there was no shortage of bad or frustrating news.…


Shame

Last week, I enjoyed the surprisingly moving, new Marvel movie, Thunderbolts. It features a ragtag group of superheroes, united by their conflicted pasts. The primary villain in the movie – as I see it – is shame. Shame is not the name of a specific villain but a feeling that debilitates all of us – even superheroes with otherworldly powers. In the film, shame’s specter envelops those it touches – both literally and figuratively.…


Ignorant

“Why do they call it cologne for men and perfume for women?” was the question my youngest daughter posed to me as she lay in bed, after a long day.

My initial instinct was to offer a guess. Perhaps it’s based on where each originated geographically. She rightfully questioned this theory. Eventually, I admitted my ignorance as I really had no idea. I told her I would look it up and let her know the next day.…


Invisible

Years ago, I read an eye-opening book called, The Submerged State. Its premise was that one of the chief reasons we don’t value the role of government is because its work and effects are too often invisible to us. The prime example was the oft cited quote “Keep your government hands off my Medicare,” – a reflection of an angry citizen not realizing that Medicare was in fact a government program.…


Tools

What do a broken washing machine, two Ikea loft beds, and Jane Goodall have in common?

Each required using common tools to solve a stressful problem.

Let’s start first with the washing machine. I was peacefully chilling in my living room after a very, very long day, only to be disrupted by a menacing beeping sound emanating from our laundry room. The dreaded E18 Error on the display greeted me – signaling that the machine was not draining properly.…


Stages

I have been transfixed by stages lately. Last week, I watched three showings of Mamma Mia bathed in joy. Last night, I listened intently to the group Black Violin bend musical genres.

Stages are not limited to theaters. I love watching my children on athletic fields, delighted when hearing others call their names and cheer them on.

Stages don’t require a large audience, either. One person watching you as you are locked in on any given task in any given place, qualifies according to one Englishman’s definition.…


Smiling

Last week, I wrote down a friend’s name. The mere thought of him brought a smile to my face – the byproduct of a thousand good times together.

A few days later, I watched my daughter perform in her high school’s joyous production of Mamma Mia. I smiled through the whole first act and most of the second. At various times, I looked over at my wife and other two daughters – often exchanging knowing smiles.…


Ho’oponopono

My wife and I have been watching the show, The Pitt lately. Each episode covers one hour of a twelve hour shift in an emergency room in a Pittsburgh hospital. The show is tremendous in every way; full of humanity and dignity.

One storyline focused on a pair of siblings trying to do what’s right by their father who is dying. At some point to help them cope with this incredibly difficult situation, the doctor introduces them to the Hawaiian concept of Ho’oponopono.…


Bygones

“Yesterday’s tomorrow is today,” is a line from the poem Bygones, written by the late Marina Keegan. Keegan died tragically in a car crash on her way to celebrate her father’s 55th birthday in 2012. She had just graduated college and was set to begin what was to be a promising career as writer at The New Yorker.

The poem is largely a reflection on a future she would never experience.…


Recharge

As spring is peaking around the corner, many universities – including one at which I teach have gone on break. These week-long vacations from school are intended to be restorative; an opportunity for students and faculty to recharge their batteries before coming back to finish their semester strong.

Some will board planes seeking sunnier destinations and dispositions – after a winter of our collective discontent.

Rather than boarding a plane for a week, I instead drove to the beach for less than an hour.…


Attention

Pay. Give. Hold. Demand. Undivided, Limited. Deficit.

All words associated with our attention. Often parts of phrases clamoring to receive some amount of it. The words have an air of desperation to them. Presumably underscoring how difficult a task it is to receive it for any length of time.

The poet, Mary Oliver, wrote frequently of our attention. Imploring us to pay more attention to the natural world around us.…