Living Once Apparently, where I have been saying “Carpe Diem” for many years, even long before the movie The Dead Poets Society, when Robin Williams whispers it to his prep school students, telling them to “gather ye rosebuds while ye may” as written by poet Robert Herrick in 1909, who took the phrase from The Book of Wisdom from the Bible, others have been saying YOLO (You Only Live Once) to imply the same thing.…
Labor Day Labors We all carry our own burdens, whether we want to or not. One of mine appears to be that I think too much. Please don’t shut down and assume that I am being arrogant and suggesting that I am smarter than other people, because I am not. I know my IQ and have for many years and I know I have a modicum of intelligence, but that many of you out there…
The Great Outdoors This morning I am sitting at the top of Palomar Mountain at a wooden picnic table in the shade of a massive (8-10 foot diameter trunk) spreading California cedar tree that is purported to be 400 years old. Actually, that tree is off to the side and cordoned off and I’m sitting in a picnic area that is situated between three of its brothers who are probably no more than 350 years…
The Cost of Joy It was Alfred Lord Tennyson who said in his short poem In Memoriam to A.H.H. (His Cambridge pal Arthur Henry Hallam) in 1849: I envy not in any moods The captive void of noble rage, The linnet born within the cage,That never knew the summer woods. I envy not the beast that takes His licence in the field of time, Unfettered by the sense of crime,To whom a conscience never wakes.…
Long Distance Grieving I am packed and ready to head to the airport for a Redeye flight to JFK, arriving tomorrow there at the bright and early time of 5am. I know I won’t sleep much on the flight even though i am traveling in Jet Blue’s Mint service, which had lie-flat seats. I used to sleep like a baby on overnight flights when I was in full work harness, but those days and those…
Loving Life I think I am settling into my retired life at long last. It’s only taken three years, but today is somehow different. When something good or bad happens on a given day, it’s fairly easy to comprehend why we might feel particularly good or bad overall. But when something noteworthy does NOT happen and you feel noticeably good or bad, that seems worthy of some reflection. I have long held and even discussed…
Touched by the Big Chill Yesterday was quite a day. I have written about our AC problems in this mid-August heat wave, a problem that got resolved with relative ease. I have also written about the events at Mart-A-Lago and the irony of all the informational overload we as Americans are being asked to take in about all the people from the right that are trying literally and figuratively to flush all evidence down the…
Saying Hello I’ve probably said this in so many ways that I’ve become quite predictable. I have a relatively easy time saying goodbye to places. That comes from my lifetime of moving, first as a trailing child and eventually as an adult with a roving eye and more than a modicum of wanderlust. But saying goodbye to places is always much easier than saying goodbye to people for sure. I’ve been pretty fortunate in my…
Rich in Real Life One of our favorite movies is the 2007 RomCom with Steve Carrel, Juliet Binoche, and Dane Cook called Dan in Real Life. It is directed by Peter Hedges, who is a bit of an obscure director who is perhaps better known as a writer of What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio) and the screenplay for About a Boy, which is another favorite of mine. We are sitting around…
Speaking Frankly I have known Frank now for every bit of thirty years. We met by virtue of being next door to each other in condos in a small twelve-unit place called Ontario Lodge on the northern side of the main Deer Valley Mountain, looking down onto Guardsman’s Pass and the old silver mine that was the raison d’et for Park City’s existence. As was emblematic of the two of us, Frank had been there…