The past year left us with a problem. What are we going to do now? Washington Irving wrote the story of a man who goes to sleep only to wake 20 years later. He discovered he missed so much, such as the American Revolution. He lived in a different world than the one he left. His name was Rip Van [...]
Scott Thompson's family has farmed the Wisconsin soil for over 70 years. He usually plants strawberries. Then, in the fall, he grows raspberries and pumpkins. This year, his crop looked different. He planted joy. You can't plant joy, but you can plant sunflowers. Thompson planted 22 acres of sunflowers. Thompson Strawberry Farm attracted families who picnic, wander fields of florals, and take [...]
In the 1860s, the merchant marine fleet of England suffered many losses. Ships sank in record numbers. Many sank in the harbor. It fell to Samuel Plimsoll, a young naval officer, to spot the problem. As long as a ship had space, cargo kept coming. Soon, the weight pushed the keel lower until it sank beneath the waterline. Plimsoll had the solution, [...]
All of us sit on a powderkeg of emotions. The worst of all is anger. Anger throws bricks through windows. It speeds up behind another driver, draws a gun, and starts shooting. It slaps a wife, batters children, and burns forests. It holds a keyboard as it types bitter all-cap letters into Twitter or Facebook. Harsh words wound. All are the results [...]
This final week of the year is my annual “review and preview” time. I look at what I have done and then top the hill to look at the year ahead. In the review of the year, one of the vital questions is: What one word or phrase best sums up and describes your experience this year? How would [...]
Our world is deaf. It is not from the inability to hear but the refusal to listen. Shouting. Name-calling. Interruptions. They are all signs of the times. The first presidential debate of 2020 put it onstage in living color. The candidates acted as if they were two third-graders shouting ridicule at each other on the school playground. (I apologize for the insult [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
“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 [...]
