Back in the 1950s, at Saint Cecilia School in Ames, Iowa, a dedicated team of nuns attempted to teach me how to write in cursive. They had their work cut out for them. Even with special paper that had five faded lines to help me uniformly attach one letter to the next, …
Rarely do people ask me for advice. But two weeks ago, at a meeting with young business men and women in Reno, I was asked to share one thing I would do differently over the last 30 years. Since this was a rare occasion, I didn’t want to mess up my answer. So I …
Yesterday I did battle with an overgrown wild rose patch in my backyard. It was a thorny job. I could have protected my arms from getting bloodied as I trimmed back the invading bushes, but there was something courageous about wearing short sleeves. Later in the day, …
Kate Calhoun is my daughter, a psychologist and one of my closest friends. She recently suggested I may be too self-deprecating in my blog. She says she sees her dad as more capable and wise than I let on. In a weak moment, I promised her I’d do one Aging blog that covers …
I’m blessed with a talent for finding the “blind spots” in other people. Some of my friends act in the weirdest ways – which can be unhealthy or self-destructive. For example, Robert gets too involved with his son’s sport programs. He wants to coach his son’s coach to help …
My mom played a cool trick on me when I was a little boy. She would pretend she couldn’t get a jar of peanut butter open and then ask me to give it a shot. To my joyous surprise, I was able to get the lid off every time. I took this special talent into …
“The wisest men follow their own direction.” – Euripides As I get older, I have a harder time following directions received from others. And it’s not working out for me. If I buy something in a box that claims it can be assembled in five easy steps, I think, “How …
Looking back on my high school football career, I could have been a great player. Only a couple things stood in my way. First off, I didn’t like to get tackled. And I wasn’t fond of tackling others. It came down to not wanting to put myself in a position to experience an …
What’s the most important message I ever received? It was from Augie, my clumsy guardian angel, who chose to join me on a hike to Virginia City. Augie thinks he knows so much more than I do, and at times, he can be a bit self-righteous – but I guess angels have their …
“How did I get so late, so soon?” That’s one of my favorite lines from Dr. Seuss. Some days I feel like I’m behind on almost everything – and I’m getting too old for that. At weak moments, I allow others’ expectations to wreak havoc on my serenity. Tick tock, tick tock, Don …