“I sometimes wonder about the doors that stay shut when you can’t afford a smile.” – Louis M. Profeta MD   Dr. Profeta is one of my favorite writers, and his recent article with the quote above hit home with me in a really big way. You see, I played a part similar to that […]

One of my favorite LinkedIn presences, Laura Irwin, posted a thought-provoking question there last week: “Where did this entitlement of feeling good all the time come from?” It really resounded with lots of folks, given the sheer volume of commentary that followed. There were many excellent points in the comments, too, but Laura herself made […]

In the past couple of weeks, LinkedIn’s Editor at Large Chip Cutter introduced me to some great new ideas and showed me real kindness. At the end of May, he published a great article about some innovative ways small communities are working to lure young people “home” to rural areas. It struck a nerve with […]

If you see me at Webelos or Boy Scout camp at Gerber Scout Reservation this summer, or at any of our Troop 292 monthly campouts, or maybe even just out hiking around my neighborhood, I’ll probably be hauling a big black backpack with MOLLE attachments (Modular Lightweight Load-Carrying Equipment, a military-designed system for attaching pouches […]

My goodness, the media are full of scathing editorials about the demise of the Boy Scouts. They were doomed when they allowed gay Scouts. And even more doomed when they allowed gay adult leaders. And they’re super-duper doomed now that their ranks will be fully opened to girls. (Venture Scouting and Sea Scouting were already […]

Jeffrey R. Carter is one of my favorite bloggers. His posts at his site Points and Figures are always thought-provoking and well-written. Usually I agree just about 100% with him – we’re very aligned in our perspectives on business, society and politics. For his post this morning, “Bull$%^& Numbers,” things weren’t much different. I did […]

Driving home for lunch yesterday, I had my first real-life experience with a freeway wrong-way driver. Unfortunately, I first saw him a few hundred yards straight in front of me, when the pickup that had been in the left-hand lane ahead of me suddenly swerved into the right-hand lane. The potential killer was barreling toward […]

No, this is not one of those annoying articles about what a lazy computer-bound slug you are and how wonderful it would be for you to buy a hyper-expensive standing desk. This is about the slew of articles recently waxing philosophical about the decline in Americans relocating. See here, here and here, for example. As […]

That headline is a quote from Ken Chlouber, Colorado miner and creator of the Leadville Trail 100 ultramarathon. You don’t need to run an ultramarathon. You don’t even really need to make pain your friend. Almost all of us, though, could stand to become a bit (or perhaps a lot) more comfortable with discomfort. I […]

When I arrived at the old Seagram’s plant I work at, one of the colossal brick barrel warehouses was in rather sad shape.  The outer facade of brick (each wall is two courses of brick deep) on about half the building had separated from the inner wall and begun sloughing off in often giant chunks.  […]