Family Isn’t Dead Everyone has problems, and sometimes problems have a way of multiplying as we grow older. Worries heaped atop other worries, and those on top of physical issues. Despite that, I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world. I grew up in the most loving family I can imagine. And…
On Being Married For 45 Years On July 4th, Mikki and I celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary. Way back in 1969, on a scorching hot Independence Day, we swore vows to each other. I was 17. She was still 16. But we knew what swearing to a vow meant. It was the way we were…
One Last Lesson From Coffee Dog This is the third post I’ve done about Coffee Dog. The first was back in January, 2013. It was simply titled, Coffee Dog. The second one I wrote six months later. I called that one, A Lesson From Coffee Dog. Each of those posts were difficult to write due to the circumstances….
What Do Newspapers, Money Clips, and Garlic Have To Do With Life? I lost my father when I was still a young man of 27. That’s a lot more time than many people get, but it was too early for him to go. I still had a lot to learn. But every year on father’s…
Do You Need Someone To Hate? I don’t understand all of the hatred and vitriol in the world today. It seems like you can’t read the news or turn on the TV without seeing an example of hate crimes and prejudice. Whites hating blacks, blacks hating whites, Christians hating Muslims, Muslims hating Jews, straights hating…
Words Of Love What you do is far more important than what you say. It’s similar to the old show and tell rule. You can tell people all day long how scary facing a rattlesnake would be, but if you drop one down in front of them it takes on a whole new light. The…
What I Learned From Coffee Dog A few months ago I did a post about Gracie, the coffee dog. What I didn’t say in that post was that Gracie had been suffering from diabetes for a few years. Now the disease has progressed rapidly, bringing on complete blindness. She gets insulin shots twice a day,…
A Giant Of A Man Many, many years ago, growing up in the Cleland Heights section of Wilmington, DE., I learned a lesson that I’ve never forgotten. The lesson was taught to me by my mother, a woman who had a way of making you recognize the truth. People say the best lessons are the…
I’m a Damn Sissy I went grocery shopping with my wife the other night, an unusual occurrence in itself, but the experience was not pleasant. The store was crowded, and the people were rude. Not like when I was growing up. I made a few comments to that effect. My wife laughed, and said, “You…
Memories of a Great Teacher I recently lost two of my favorite people in the whole world — my Aunt Margaret, who passed away a few weeks shy of her 91st birthday; and then Aunt Rose, who passed away a few months before her 97th. They were at the top of my list for a…