flawed but authentic

A typical day for me begins by plugging in my unnamed laptop, grabbing my portable two-way radio from its charger, and listening to voicemail. It’s nothing for me to have 5 or 6 to listen to and take notes on before I begin making calls. It’s the busyness of the job and I’m stopped several [...]

Two teachers from my high school days made quite a difference for me. One of them was my English teacher. She introduced me to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and changed the way I felt about literature forever. For a while, I went around calling everyone Goody before their name because I thought that “Goody Proctor” [...]

I’m normally late with my posting here.
Recently, I was absent for weeks. I blamed lack of internet access (partly true, but I could have dragged my sorry ass to an internet cafe!).
My girls (and I would give a shout out, but they know who they are) are being patient and caring and waiting for me [...]

We’ve all seen it so many times that it seems trite, a cliché. It is a mantra in recovery groups.
But it is bigger than that. Stop, look, listen:
God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
This one little prayer [...]

Most of what I want to create in this space (and this space) is the ability to try to see things in life that seem, at first, like small differences in the lives of others. It’s been a good exercise for me to write something weekly (ahem!) about ways in which people make a difference [...]

One of my hobbies is protesting. My involvement started when I lived in a small town that was a lively vortex of political activity.
It had begun when residents banded together with tens of thousands of people to protest the construction of a nuclear power plant in the area. When the plant was built, the people’s energy and enthusiasm [...]

Some of my friends are more punctual than others. That, unfortunately, determines how ‘on time’ I am when meeting them. If I have to meet one of them at 7 p.m. then I am either sure to leave in plenty of time or else I will leave right at 7 and arrive late. Wednesday I [...]