Personal Screens I know it is popular to talk about how so much screen time for kids is harmful for their development, but I’m less sure of that than ever. I am sitting in my living room with my two granddaughters, who are eleven and eight years old. They are each on their own iPads wrapped in protective and colorful plastic bumpers. I’ve asked them what they are doing and Charlotte, the older one was…
Continuing Confusion It’s now been eight days since the dreaded debate that was heard around the world. The cycling of political emotions has been out of hand and continuously on everyone’s mind. What began as shock and awe turned immediately into taking sides. People on the right have stayed unusually quiet because they just can’t believe their own good fortune for the self-inflicted wounds being perpetrated by their opponents. First, Joe Biden shoots himself in…
Back to Normal? I want to explore for a moment why everything feels like it’s back to normal today. First of all, I’m not entirely sure what normal means anymore. For many years (1976 – 2019…43 years) normal meant getting up and being consumed by work for most of the day, any and every day, and then squeezing in other life activities like family and friends whenever and wherever they fit around the edges. Yesterday,…
Sleeping It Off It’s the morning of July 4th and I am bone tired. I actually have a decent reason for that. My daughter and her family of four flew in last night. It was late last night because while we reserved the flight more than four months ago, this is a big travel year as we read about more and more every day. Making up for COVID may be a part of it, but…
A Voice In The Wilderness Our copy of The Hidden Meadows News was in our mailbox when we got home and it was hard not to notice that Kim’s profile in the local gazette has risen to quite a noticeable level. She and her activities represent 3 out of the 8 pages of editorial coverage in our community and she is pictured 4 times. She was given credit for her “respected” co-leadership of the Garden…
Tear Jerkers I just watched two movies while flying cross-country. The first was on the flight from Norfolk to Atlanta and the second I just finished as we are heading into San Diego. The first one was called Hard Miles with Matthew Modine. It tells the story of a teacher and his four juvenile delinquent students who are taking a therapeutic bicycle trip to the Grand Canyon. The pathos runs thick between the struggles of…
Things I Do Not Understand I know that most of you are thinking this is going to be an extraordinarily long story given the title, but I will try to keep it down to my usual size and declare right up front that this is not intended to be a comprehensive list of things I do not understand, but just the ones that are on my mind today. We are on our last day at…
Now, on the subject of DJT v. United States of America. I don’t know how any of you feel about the SCOTUS decision on presidential immunity (I, clearly, dissent), but since our system, right or wrong, makes it the new law of the land, it has certainly significantly raised the bar on the standards for which we must all consider putting someone into that now especially vaunted chair. I do not know whether this decision…
The Heat is On Here in Virginia Beach, it is 86 degrees with 76% humidity, which my weather app says makes it feel like 98 degrees. If you asked anyone in our party, especially those who wandered through the USS Wisconsin, going four decks below the water line into the bowels of this steel battleship, they would add about another 15 degrees to that. I checked our hilltop and see that it is 84 degrees…
Life’s a Beach The Supreme Court has been very busy as it comes to the end of its term. Most of today’s attention has gone to the decisions regarding the obstruction of justice ruling regarding the January 6 insurrection, and about the overturn of the Chevron case which effectively guts the ability of agencies to operate in the manner in which they have in the past. But there’s always a silver lining and today’s silver…