Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.”
– Sir Winston Churchill
Illinois 38th Infantry
My paternal grandfather’s great-uncle, Eli H. Dowell, was in the 38th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company K, of the Union Army during the American Civil War. His unit took place in many actions in what was considered “the war in the west”, including the major battles of Perryville, Stones River (Murfreesboro), and Chickamauga.
Continue readingLooking Forward to 2021!
With all of the craziness we’ve experienced over the last year, soon to be “topped-off” by the upcoming election, how nice it will be to get 2020 “in the books!”
Continue readingThe Old Magnolia Tree
When our family lived in Durham, North Carolina, for the second time between the years of 1963 and 1971, we lived in an area that was a boyhood dream. In our back yard, less than 20 yards from the house, was an old log cabin with remnants of a linoleum floor and a covered hole in the wall that was once for a stovepipe. The cabin had been a dwelling at one time. Just across the street, was the eastern boundary of Duke Forest, in which my neighborhood friends and I had a network of paths and forts extending almost to Orange County to the east.
Continue readingClose Encounter of the Iconic Kind
It’s not likely to go through life without having some form of contact with someone well-known, whether it be a professional athlete, a politician, television personality, or some kind of celebrity. I have been fortunate over the years to have known and even become friends with some very famous, popular, and well-known individuals, but the biggest by far was an encounter with a particular screen icon!
Continue readingThe Year 2020 at Halftime
In my Daily Updates from The New York Times, one of the topics was a reflection on this already historic year as we are midway through it.
Continue reading10 Common Causes of Failure
Back in my college days, I read Og Mandino’s book University of Success, which served as such an inspiration that I would refer to it from time to time throughout my professional career. The book is a series of “lessons”, but the one that most inspired me was Lesson 5.
Continue readingWe have found the enemy and they are us.”
– Walt Kelly, creator of comic strip Pogo
The Starling – A Bird that it’s Okay to Hate
European Starling “Sturnus Vulgaris”
Every Spring when the birds begin to revitalize following several weeks or even months of old man Winter, it never fails that at least one will attempt to domicile in the area next to my window air-conditioning unit. As my desk sits next to that window, I have to bang on the accordion side-panel of the unit with my flashlight to ward them off. Until this year!
Continue readingExtraordinary Times
And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.
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Reliving Autumn of 1985
Back in December of 2019, I was contacted by Chris, who along with his wife, both from Muncie, have put together a podcast series on unsolved Indiana homicides in the central region of the state. The title of the Series is “Circle City Crime” and it is now in its second season.
Continue readingThe Two Wolves
Continue readingThere is a battle of two wolves inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, lies, inferiority and ego. The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy and truth. The wolf that wins? The one you feed.”
– Cherokee Proverb