I’m often left with the frightening realization that when someone has made up their mind, all of the logic, and all of the facts, and all of the truth that we can gather up and bring to bear in some sort of meaningful dialogue is meaningless.  People are not interested in meaningful dialogue.  Rather, they’re simply interested in promoting their … [Read more...]

Do I really want to see myself?  Really?  Not as I might prefer to see myself in order to have some rickety and ill-placed semblance of peace.  Not the image that grants me permission to stay a course that maybe I should stay away from.  Not the perception of myself that allows me to side-step guilt, by-pass accountability, and circumvent … [Read more...]

Fear – How We Create It Fear.  We all have it.  Sometimes it’s just this slight apprehension, or this bit of inner angst, or this uncomfortable twinge that we experience.  At other times it’s utterly overwhelming, leaving us helplessly paralyzed and violently shaken right down to the core of everything that we are.  At certain times and in … [Read more...]

I grew up in the shadow of a generation who faced the depravity of the Great Depression and then fought through the horrors of World War II.  The deep sense of patriotism and solemn respect for our country ran high among these great people. Therefore, as the Fourth of July once again rolls around on the calendar, I find it appropriate to take a … [Read more...]

Self-esteem is really the accumulation of beliefs that we have collected about ourselves.  We arrange these many beliefs in some sort of composite much like a tile mosaic.  Each piece is some shard taken from some experience or encounter or event or circumstance that has come our way at some time in our lives.  These many pieces are selected based … [Read more...]

Life has a way of walloping us; something like a train hurtling out of nowhere and we just happen to be standing on the tracks.  Sometimes the hit is expected as we've seen it coming from a long ways off.  Many times it's not expected at all.  Sometimes it might be entirely justified, being the natural outcome of our poor choices or lax attitude or … [Read more...]

There is a tremendous and completely ingenious capability inherent in our humanity that exceeds our wildest expectations.  Sadly, we have dumbed ourselves down to the point that we have compromised, and in many cases altogether forfeited these marvelous capabilities.  In doing so, our conviction regarding our capability is marginalized to near … [Read more...]

I grew up under the tutelage of a generation who faced the depravity of the Great Depression and then fought through the horrors of World War II.  The deep sense of patriotism and solemn respect for our country ran high among these great people. Therefore, as Memorial Day once again rolls around on the calendar, I find it appropriate to take a … [Read more...]

We live in a world spiraling in a confounding kaleidoscopic of shoddy opinions, self-serving biases, vacillating cultural mandates, clarion calls for whatever politically-correct notion might be trending at the moment, and the elusive lure of all things vogue and trendy.  We’re frantically chasing some perpetually shifting norm that’s nothing of a … [Read more...]

In large part, Memorial Day has devolved into a weekend that represents the onset of the summer season.  It’s something like the starting gun at the beginning of a race.  It’s the day that officially frees us from the doldrums of winter and gives us some sort of permission to play for the next three months or so until Labor Day reminds us that it’s … [Read more...]