I had a visit this week from a friend who lives in Canada and whom I haven’t seen in more than three years. Next week I will be visiting her in Thunder Bay where she lives. Also, if our schedules work out, next week I will also be visiting with some old friends from college. We stayed close after we all graduated, but over the years, when jobs, moves, families, and other circumstances took us in different directions – literally and figuratively – we gradually [...]
“Creative Coping” was the theme of our Toastmasters meeting the other night. I think that’s a good description of all of our lives right now. (Our meetings, by the way, are held online via Zoom for the time being, which is how we are creatively coping with stay-at-home orders and guidelines.) Day by day and week by week, we’re all finding and implementing new ways to cope with the restrictions meant to keep us safe and to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Along the [...]
So what are you doing now, that you haven’t done in a long time – something you never had time for, or just didn’t get around to until now? I got an email a few days ago from a friend in response to last week’s blog. She said she’s been contacting friends of long ago, adding that they now have more time to talk – about happy memories. She’s in her 80s now, and is friendly and cheerful by nature, so I’m guessing that her [...]
Have you ever watched a movie or TV show in which someone is temporarily blinded or paralyzed, or loses their hearing due to an accident, explosion, or shoot-out? There’s always a dramatic scene as the bandages are removed, and everyone watches, holding their breath, to find out if the patient will be able to see, hear, or walk again. I’ll never forget an episode of the TV show M*A*S*H in which Hawkeye, the main character and head surgeon, is blinded by an exploding water heater. [...]
A tradition is, by definition, something that is repeated year after year. Even so, traditions change over time. Kids grow up and go off on their own, families that used to live within a few miles of each other are now spread out across the country, and lifestyles of days gone by simply don’t fit our way of life anymore. Easter, like Christmas, has both sacred and secular traditions, and I now find myself thinking about all the Easter traditions I have taken part in [...]
One of the speaking programs I used to do was titled, “Where Do Diamonds Come From? A Lump of Coal and a Lot of Pressure.” The inspiration for the title of the program came from an old television series, The Adventures of Superman, that ran in the 1950s. People of a certain age – meaning my age or older – will remember the many episodes in which Superman took a piece of coal, squeezed it, and opened his hand to reveal a sparkly diamond. The [...]
How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were? That question comes up every so often, and I’ll be the first to admit there are times when I feel much older than my actual age. But there are times when I feel younger, too, so I guess it evens out. I thought of the question recently in relation to a friend who sent me an email after reading one of my blog posts a few weeks ago. He said that over [...]
A comic strip on the bulletin board of a health club I used to belong to featured an overweight man in his underwear sitting on the examining table in a doctor’s office. The doctor, standing next to him and staring at the clipboard he was holding, said, “Which works better for your schedule – exercising for one hour a day or being dead for twenty-four?” I was reminded of that the other day while watching a television interview with a man who was recovering from [...]
National emergencies – whether man-made or acts of God – tend to bring out the worst in some people, and the best in others. I read a story the other day that showed an example of both – in the same incident. The story was in Forbes online magazine, and had to do with a stock clerk, in a large grocery store, who was getting reamed out by a man who was livid because the store was out of Purell. The customer was hollering at [...]