I love to people watch everywhere that I go. I’m always looking for interesting stories and sometimes I find them just in observing the day to day interactions of human beings. Some of my favorite Facebook posts come from the Humans of New York series of short interviews with ordinary citizens. There is often profound wisdom found in the comments from unknown, everyday men and women. It is for that reason that I am always alert to the goings on around me. Continue reading “Grabbing Joy”
Month: July 2015
An Incredible Search
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
—Carl Sagan
What were you doing in January of 2006? If you are like me you barely remember. I suppose that I was busy working at Revere Middle School. I had been in my new home in Pearland for almost a year by then. I was still spending Friday nights taking my mother to dinner. My grandchildren were all quite young. Mike and I were simply rocking along in our own little world, often tired from the long hours that we spent at our jobs. I had little idea of the life changing events that were in store for us. I certainly paid no attention to a barely mentioned venture at NASA called New Horizons. Continue reading “An Incredible Search”
We Need Heroes
I have always had a fascination with heroes. As a child I loved learning about saints. Later when I began to realize that none of us are ever as perfect as I had imagined those blessed individuals to be I found new people to inspire me. Among them was John F. Kennedy. Even then I understood that at times he had disappointingly human failings but when his courage was most needed he more than once managed to rise to the occasion. During World War II he saved a number of his fellow crew members on PT 109 in an effort that left him plagued with chronic back pain for the rest of his life. During the terrifyingly dark October days of the Cuban missile crisis he maintained a strong and cool head managing not just to defer a possible nuclear strike on American soil but also to prompt the Soviet Union to dismantle the warheads that had been aimed so dangerously toward cities in the United States. Continue reading “We Need Heroes”
On Becoming Our Best Selves
I have a rather sassy granddaughter. She reminds me much more of my mother and mother-in-law than of myself or my daughters. I suppose that I secretly enjoy that she is so much more willing to assert herself than I ever was. I spent most of my childhood and teenage years being quiet and polite and even a bit repressed. I was truly afraid to be the person that I wanted to be or to express the opinions that rattled inside my brain. My granddaughter doesn’t even come close to being like that.
Don’t get me wrong. She is never rude or rebellious. In fact her teachers love her to death because she is such an outstanding young lady. Nonetheless she doesn’t mind speaking up when she senses injustice and she possesses a certain childlike wisdom that is beguiling. When her mother and I stew over problems she invariably arrives at conclusions and solutions that make great sense. In that regard she sometimes seems to be the reincarnation of my mother-in-law, a woman who always seemed able to reach the most rational and meaningful conclusions in even the most dire situations. Continue reading “On Becoming Our Best Selves”
You’re Fired
If you follow my blogs regularly you had to know that I would not be able to resist the temptation to write about Donald Trump. For those of you who tend to be off put by political dialogue the short version of my analysis is that The Donald is and always has been a fake, a charlatan, a super salesman and huckster. Which is to say that he is a politician on steroids. Frankly I don’t think that we have seen a truly real and noble leader in my lifetime with the exception of Jimmy Carter who was eventually eaten alive by the usual folk who hang around the halls of government. Donald Trump is little more than a caricature of the political animal. If I thought that he had even a ghost of a chance of becoming the President of the United States I would be investigating the possibility of sitting out the next many years in Canada. Luckily I believe that rational Americans are already beginning to see through the smoke and mirrors that have been his stock and trade throughout his career. Continue reading “You’re Fired”
All It Takes Is A Little Love 