Where to Live There are three considerations that have more impact on our lives than any others. We cannot choose when we live as that is the role of the dice we call procreation, whether you believe in the human soul or reincarnation or whatever. I suppose some people can determine actively or passively through their lifestyle choices, how long they live, but that is a very different issue. The other three considerations are the…
Betty Betty Betty My entire family has now gone to the dogs. Carolyn, who always wanted a dog from the youngest age and was denied by circumstances, had to invent her own dog in her plush Stieff floppy-eared mutt called Ted. As soon as she was in her own stable home environment with her now-husband John, they went and got themselves a little black and white Havanese that they named Abraham Lincoln or Abe for…
Return of the Monkey There seem to be many monkeys in my life. No, I do not live in the tropics of Costa Rica, where monkeys are constantly in the trees around you, making their presence all too obvious (as we saw a few years ago during a holiday visit to the fond place of my 5-6-year old life). In that never-never land of vagueness between an early childhood memory and a pseudo-memory that has…
Cadet Maxim Redux We have probably all seen the Cadet Maxim that originates from West Point, the U.S. Military Academy on the Hudson River. West Point is the longest continuously manned army post in the United States, having been established in 1778 and founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1802. That Maxim reads: Risk more than others think is safe Care more than others think is wise Dream more than others think is practical Expect more…
MLK and What It Means to Me Tomorrow is the national Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Holiday, commemorating the civil rights activist that was born Michael King Jr. on January 15th, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia and who preached and led the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. He advocated non-violence during a violent time in America’s history and he used civil disobedience and the resultant publicity that came…
Nothing Can Stop Us Now Well, I am back in my Disney hotel room recuperating from my one day at Disney, in this case the Hollywood Studios park specifically. Thematically, this is where the rides, attractions and related merchandising are all connected in some way with the movies. I had forgotten how tiring a day at Disney can be. According to my iPhone step-meter, I did slightly more than what I do on a very…
Tolkien Spoken Here I spent my middle school years in the back-woods of South Central Maine. I guess that helped make me, in part, a Mainiac. We were living in Poland Spring, the scene of oh so many stories. Poland Spring was an old-world resort for the carriage trade of Boston and New York going back as long as 1794 when Hiram Ricker “discovered” that the combination of the fresh spring water, devoid of most…
Weather or Not For as long as I can remember, I have advised myself and others that the selection of a long-term or retirement residence should be based on those people closest to one’s soul. They may be parents, siblings, children or friends, the circumstances of and social conventions of one’s particular family will likely set the priorities or preferences. But the choice of retirement home is even more challenging than, say, any other residence…
Total Recall It’s late Christmas morning and most of the presents have been unwrapped and the bows and ribbons saved for another future gift wrapping while the wrapping paper gets crumpled up and thrown into a trash bag. Kim has perfected the Christmas morning program with everyone getting a big stocking stuffed with small joking wrapped gifts. The objective is to find things that are mildly appropriate and amusing and yet not so over-the-top that…
Father Knows Best In 1975 my best friend Paul convinced me to apply to business school at Cornell and to join him on his quest for strategic greatness in the business world. In those days I spent all my time with Paul and his young, sweet wife Ann and we often joked about his favorite childhood TV show, Father Knows Best, starring Robert Young and Jane Wyatt as the iconoclastic parents that represented the best…