It’s late so I have only a series of short questions tonight. Short but with big ramifications. And they all center on that little voice in the back of our minds that is constantly shooting its mouth off throughout our days: In general, how often does that little voice speak the truth to us? How often does it speak the truth about those we consider to be our enemies? And how often does it speak the truth even about those we love? How often does it speak the truth about who we ourselves are? How often does it say we…

My family has had some fantastic vacations in the past twenty or so years. So it is incredibly disappointing that I remember so little about them! My memory is terrible; I anticipate that a year from now I will likely have only vague impressions of our 2021 trip to Myrtle Beach … if I don’t take the time to write down specific memories. Therefore, I have decided that for the next few days, I will use this space to document this trip. As for today? Nothing too fun or exciting – just 9 or so hours of interstate driving –…

Someone has described “intermittent fasting” as American-Fitness-Guru Speak for “skipping breakfast”, but it is a bit more than that. In essence, it is eating only within the time boundaries of a specified window each day. So, for example, eating nothing before 11:00 AM and then nothing after 7:00 PM, but eating normally during the 8 hours between.  It’s a simple idea and I find it a useful practice now and then. It reminds me of three basic truths that apply far beyond diet considerations: 1) Hunger pangs are uncomfortable, but not fatal.  2) I find that my willpower can more…

In my single days I once housesat six weeks for a family with a cat named Princess. She was aptly named and the entire house was her kingdom. Princess liked to jump onto the kitchen counter, roam about at leisure and then lick water from the kitchen sink. The family thought this was adorable.  I did not.  I do not care for cats and I prefer my food to be free of all cat hair. I decided that six weeks would be more than enough time to break Princess of her bad kitchen habits. And, sure enough, within the first…

One of my favorite classes I get to teach this semester is 7th grade Communications. In the process of thinking through all the various components that make up any particular message we receive or send during the course of our days, it finally dawned on me why I hate email so much – at least for anything beyond the most rudimentary conveyance of any material void of emotion.  Consider how much vital information is conveyed in a basic face-to-face exchange: In Person: The Words Themselves The Speaker’s Tone and Volume The Speaker’s Facial Expressions The Speaker’s Body Language Now, consider…

As I said goodnight to Sarah Sunday night, the last night before our last week of classes before a full week of spring break, I found myself lamenting to her, “I sure don’t look forward to going to school tomorrow. This week is going to absolutely drag by.”  Since I’ve been thinking over the last few days about how I routinely exercise authority over my hands without even conscious thought, I decided this might make for a worthwhile experiment to see how exercising a little extra authority over my other thoughts might impact my day. So yesterday morning, on my…

Americans currently put a lot of effort into changing each other’s minds. “Agreeing to disagree” and “Live and let live” are things of the past.  The points of contention are endless: the effectiveness of masks and shutdowns, the correct approach to combating racism, who deserves to be canceled or boycotted, whether or not schools should be fully reopened, the morality of capitalism. And the news media and politicians offer up fresh fights every day.  The fields of battle are vast: Facebook, Twitter, workplaces, and Thanksgiving dinners.  And each side of every argument imagines itself armed with Truth and Logic.  In…