Nostalgia
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We’ll Have to Muddle Through Somehow
There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child. Erma Bombeck Thursday will be my first Christmas without Mom. I have been facing this realization since her death earlier in the year, but the awareness has become more intense with each passing day. I can’t stop thinking about Continue reading
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Step and Glide
It’s coming on ChristmasThey’re cutting down treesThey’re putting up reindeerAnd singing songs of joy and peaceOh, I wish I had a riverI could skate away on Joni Mitchell I grew up in the Arizona desert where seeing snow required a long car ride. I have very strong memories of driving from my home in the Continue reading
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Who’s on First?
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. Karl Marx Shortly after Mom’s 90th birthday she said to me, “How did I get so old?” My answer was quick and to the point. “You didn’t die.” While I am far short of Mom’s eventual 98 years, I can’t help but ask myself the same Continue reading
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Sensory Ghosts
All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses. Friedrich Nietzsche Did you know that us humans possess between five and six million olfaction (smell) sensors. Because those sensors combine their data to determine odors, we can differentiate an average of one trillion different smells? Comparatively, we have between 2000 Continue reading
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Get Off My Lawn
I’ll know my song well before I start singing. Bob Dylan I like to say that I catch nostalgia like a cold. It grabs hold of me and clouds my senses with illusions and fantasies. Play Me and You and a Dog Named Boo and I’m 13-years-old driving in the car with Dad up to Continue reading
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The Art of No
Letting go helps us to to live in a more peaceful state of mind and helps restore our balance. It allows others to be responsible for themselves and for us to take our hands off situations that do not belong to us. This frees us from unnecessary stress. Melody Beattie In 1964, as an 8th Continue reading
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Teenage Crash and Burn
When I was a teenager, I was an ultra late bloomer, and my mom would say it was a blessing because it means you never have to wonder if guys are only interested in you because you’ve got boobs. Anna Kendrick I recently came upon the following: A survey conducted by the Survey Center on Continue reading
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Love, It’s a Bitch
In boxing, I had a lot of fear. Fear was good. But, for the first time, in the bout with Muhammad Ali, I didn’t have any fear. I thought, ‘This is easy. This is what I’ve been waiting for’. No fear at all. No nervousness. And I lost. George Foreman The following is a semi Continue reading
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It’s Life’s Illusions I Recall
It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise. Henry David Thoreau Every so often I play the same song over and over again. For the past two days, I have done that with Continue reading
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The Stranger
I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land. Harriet Tubman July 8th was the 9th anniversary of my father’s death. He died at a memory care facility in Scottsdale, Arizona. I was at a Continue reading
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Mirror, Mirror
Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only. Samuel Butler Doppelgänger: The ghostly counterpart of a living person. From the German words doppel, meaning double, and ganger, meaning goer. I saw him only one time and that was 48 years ago. He was tall with really long, unkept, brown Continue reading
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Gold Watch
How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon? Dr Seuss People who know me well know that I can be a very nostalgic, sentimental person. I hold onto remnants Continue reading
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Charles Schultz, Charlie Brown, and Me
Nothing spoils the taste of peanut butter like unrequited love. Charles Schultz Linda, our friends Sheila and Jeff, and I recently attended The Life and Art of Charles M. Schultz at the Minnesota History Center. Having been a lifelong fan of Charlie Brown and Peanuts, it was a very moving experience. From a very early Continue reading
Can You Hear Me Now 