Is there a keeper of the spring in your life? Perhaps you need to heed the counsel of a Scottish preacher named Peter Marshall. Marshall had a gift. His Scottish brogue did more than enchant. It allowed him to communicate relevant ideas. His post-war generation was so different, yet so much the same as ours. “The Keeper of the Spring” became one [...]
This is the year I received my official “old-man card” (aka Medicare). It arrived in the trail of gray hair, bifocals, and hearing loss. Such is life when you get to a certain age. The concept of an age at which things change is nothing new. The idea of retirement came from Otto Von Bismarck to rid himself of rivals and control [...]
Summer is a good time to read, but this year, with COVID-19, I did not take a vacation. Most of my reading was done around my work responsibilities. However, the list below is a mixture of new books and old books, favorite authors, and those unknown to me. I was a productive summer of reading. In the Garden of the Beasts by [...]
We lost something when family farms closed, and farm kids went to college. Society changed in more than simple agriculture. We lost a way of thinking. While in college, I was the Sunday preacher for a little church in Noodle, TX. In that church, I got to know a cotton farmer. I learned more about life from him than the graduate courses [...]
On August 13, 1968, life changed. My parents went to a strange place and signed papers. We then went to Paula Stringer Realtors office (no longer there) on Central Expressway and picked up a key. We drove to the place the key fit. 620 Kindred Lane in Richardson. We opened the door to a two-story house, twice the size [...]
How do you solve problems? Few think through their processes. Problems become the bicycle wheel of life, going through the same cycle. Sometimes, you get lucky. Many times, too much time, too much money, and too much brainpower gets exhausted. Let me introduce you to a problem, one prevalent in the work-from-home residue of COVID-19. It is a problem suffered by many. [...]
It seemed that I would have more time to read during the isolation of COVID-19. But life got full of online work and the start of a daily broadcast on Facebook. My routines completely flipped upside down. I did read or listen to some books. Here’s the list. Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath I pre-ordered [...]
We’ve heard the phrase, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher, wrote those words in his Republic. They are correct, but I would like to suggest a corollary. On March 13, 2020, life lurched to a full stop. It felt like going 60 mph and shifting into reverse. You can imagine what that is like in an automobile. [...]
How do you solve a problem you unknown and unseen? That’s the premise of Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen, a new book by Dan Heath. Dan and his brother Chip have written several books. They cover topics such as change, decision-making, and making moments monumental. They leak with practical applications. Several of their processes have changed my basic [...]
“What do I plan to do once authorities lift the shelter-in-place order?” That’s what I ponder now. I find my flights of fancy ever-changing. I start with what I used to do. I would like to leisurely go to a grocery store again and find what I need. I want to sit down at a restaurant of my choice to eat [...]
