My first thought was to title this post:

RETROSPECTIVELY REALIZING THAT PRAYERS YOU NEVER REMEMBER EXPLICITLY ASKING HAVE BEEN ANSWERED

Instead, let’s say that I appreciate the lists. Every year around my birthday I am tempted to feel bad about all that I haven’t done, all that I am not, all the things that haven’t […]

I first read this novel by Mark Haddon on the island of Saipan. I didn’t read it in one sitting. I think it was in three. Maybe four. It was in one day. The voice captured me, the situationally specific details made me nostalgic and curious for elsewheres, and the detailed descriptions of disparate thought […]

I love Walter Mitty. I love the 1939 short story by James Thurber. I love the Ben Stiller movie. I love that the name Walter Mitty like Judas or Juliet or Romeo or Hamlet or Nemo or Benjamin Button was created in a story and then became part of our language, signifying something specific. I […]

In a scene in the movie About Schmidt the character played by Jack Nicholson is staring at his clock in his office. He is waiting for it to hit 5. His bags are packed. When he walks out of the door, he has reached retirement. This mini-drama is played out numerous times a day at […]

Today is Oregon’s Primary Election. In Oregon, we vote by mail, and we recently passed the Motor Voter Law which makes voting in Oregon an opt-out system. In Oregon, you are automatically registered to vote if you are eligible AND they send you a ballot in the mail. You don’t have to register. You don’t […]

I like interviews. They are a combination of conversation, questions, answers, listening, and often monotasking. These are all great things. I love the variety of interviews, and I love the purposeful seriousness that even comic interviews take.

Let’s pause to consider the variety of things that fall under the category of INTERVIEW. There are oral history […]

rd.

Just finished Spring Break. And the week after Spring Break…

Why do we hold ourselves to arbitrary deadlines? We want structure, I suppose.  And to get things done. I told myself last month that I should write an Appreciation a day in the month of March… and post them here….and  was doing that…and then […]

It’s hard to do. I appreciate the idea and the activity. Spring Break, Winter Break, the Sabbath, taking a day off, etc. It’s hard to know when to take a breather, when to rest, and when to push through and persevere.

Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said that if you gave him six hours […]

He’s right. I do have strong feelings about flags. Faced with good and bad examples, opinions bubble up. The he in the first sentence is Roman Mars, the host of a radio show called 99% Invisible. I’ve watched his TED talk on flag design a dozen times, often with students trying to isolate some point […]

Two things, and I like them both.

“A Shot In The Dark” is when you add a shot of espresso to black coffee. It is strong and delicious and risky. It could ruin regular coffee for you by making it seem too weak. Consume with caution.

One way that Webster of the Merriam variety defines […]