The year 1918 was brutal. It wasn’t due to World War I. It was the flu. Without few treatment options, the flu killed 50 million people worldwide. It was passed from person to person in a “contagion.” Every parent of a sick child asks the question, “Is he (or she) contagious?” Something is contagious if it spreads from one person to another. [...]
Is your life "stuck?" More importantly, how do you get "unstuck?" That is the premise of a fascinating little book written by Laura Vanderkam. Vanderkam has written several books (most of which I have read). She focuses her writing on managing time. Her thoughts do not flow from some pinstriped view of business but from a mom of four children and a [...]
Fanny Crosby wrote church hymns…over 8000 of them. Titles trickle through memories with ease. They include Pass Me Not and Blessed Assurance. With such a gift and exuberance for words of hope, you would assume, Crosby lived a charmed life. And you would be wrong. She lived most of her life in darkness. When she was 6 weeks old, she caught [...]
The Greek poet Homer dresses a modern issue in an ancient costume. In his epic poem, The Odyssey the poet tells the story of Odysseus (also known as Ulysses). On his journey home to Ithaca at the close of the Trojan War, he comes across danger. It is not a monster or a superior army. He encounters something pleasant, enchantresses called The [...]
One of the dawning truths of living long enough is life weaves problems into every person’s life. Paul told the Corinthians of the “light and momentary afflictions” which enter life (2 Cor. 4:17). We exaggerate most of them into overpowering and everlasting. The great tragedy is to hide from them as a child plays hide-and-seek in plain sight. We hide our struggles [...]
Marie Kondo is a rock star. The diminutive, soft-spoken Japanese invaded America in a way Hirohito could only dream of. Do we need to “Kondomari” our lives as well as our homes? Kondo wrote the book The Magic of Tidying Up. The marketing manipulators at Netflix launched her into fame with by paring her with new year resolutions. Her program Tidying Up [...]
I sat in my regular coffee shop booth, hammering away on the keyboard of a powerful computer. It was then, he caught my eye. Seated at a nearby table was a man with an open spiral notebook in front of him. No phone was visible. No computer, no laptop, no electronics at all. He simply scratched out his work with a regular [...]
It started in 1881. Prussian president Otto Von Bismark developed a radical suggestion. Retirement. In a time when people worked until they dropped dead, it was a departure. Von Bismark’s idea was different than the modern conception. His argument was "those who are disabled from work by age and invalidity have a well-grounded claim to care from the state.” Fast-forward to the [...]
During the week of Christmas, my wife and I went to see Mary Poppins Returns. I was skeptical. As a baby boomer who watched the 1964 original in a drive-in theater, Mary Poppins is Julie Andrews. I listened to records of the music as a kid and loved the movie. Now, as a man in his 7th decade, I did not want [...]
For at least 13 years (and more, if you are fortunate), you attend school. The curriculum is specific loaded with canned lessons Then, you get into another school called “life experience.” While the curriculum is not structured, the lessons continue to come. The problem is we don’t think about what we learn so we miss most of the value of the learning. [...]
