Aren’t we all refugees?
Great roiling windstorms blow clouds of dust in from the northern plains and turn the sky blood red. The impoverished dirt farmers can see them coming 20 miles away but are helpless to do anything but run for cover....
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Waiting by a window for Dad – Forgiveness, 2005
It’s taken me over 50 years to start forgiving Lee, my late father. But I have begun, and I’m feeling pretty hopeful about it. The need to forgive him crystallized while I sat near a cut glass window inside...
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Waiting by a window for Dad – Full circle, 1986
It was the first time I’d seen my father in over 30 years. He was brain dead. At least they told me it was my father. I wouldn’t have known. It could’ve been anyone. And yet, I did feel...
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Waiting by a window for Dad – Heartbreak, 1955
My dad was an alcoholic. He couldn’t hold down a job for long so one winter, when I was in second grade, he took a seasonal job selling toys during the Christmas Season. We didn’t have much. Dad, mom,...
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Keeping your eye on the ball
I was 11 years old when a deceitful Little League baseball coach inadvertently taught me a painful lesson. It happened during pre-season team tryouts where boys demonstrate their skills to various coaches to see which team they’d be selected...
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I was a social wreck at Michigan Tech
I learned a whole new definition for double dating at Michigan Technological University where I went to college. It had nothing to do with going on a date with another couple. It had everything to do with the fact...
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How much are you willing to sacrifice for your crew?
My experience as an officer in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War drove home the need to promote and defend the greater good over individual gratification. I served aboard an aircraft carrier and, like all Navy ships, we...
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Laying the Blame on the Poor
In his classic novel, The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald writes, “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone…just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” Too often we make uninformed assumptions about...
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Larry the Tool Man I Ain’t
There was a time when I felt that to be a “real man” I had to know how to fix things. You know, handyman stuff around the house. Never mind that I had absolutely zero aptitude for it. But...
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Carving Our Own Paths in Life
After attending a college football game at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California many years ago, I got into my car to exit the campus. I couldn’t remember exactly which turns to make to get to the freeway and...
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