Is this essay for you? Here’s how to decide. These words are especially dedicated to the politically depressed, dejected and dispirited… otherwise known as many of my friends, colleagues, and acquaintances in 2018. Of course, I can’t read your mind, but if you could read my thoughts and feelings, you would find a strange combination of anxiety, fear and hope brewing…
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Suffice it to say, my sweetheart and I did not fall in love at the same pace. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a huge difference and thankfully for me, things evened up fairly quickly. But there was a time when that was not so. In fact, the timing during those early days after we…
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It wasn’t mean or intentional. No one set out to deprive you or anyone else the considerable benefits of poetry in your work and personal life. No one set out to marginalize poetry, by sending it off to some obscure and threadbare room in your mind where you rarely go. Or if you do go…
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We are entering a new more truth-centered era in our professional and political lives. And no, I’m not on mind-altering drugs. I have been savoring some mind-altering poems. And now seeing these poems in a fresh new light, I can appreciate more deeply, their ability to change minds, hearts and eventually whole nations and worlds. “No!…
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“Dance first, think later. It’s the natural order” – Samuel Beckett. What could be more inefficient than love? I mean what is its purpose? What does it achieve? For example, you could walk like my sweetheart does for miles along Stinson Beach simply to admire the ocean and be delighted by its over-the-top, exuberant displays…
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Conventional wisdom says it takes years for ideas, feelings and attitudes to change. No doubt, there is truth to that and it can be a depressing truth. Thankfully, it’s not always the case. There are exceptions… surprising, wonderful, even stunning exceptions. I’m speaking of instances where something suddenly shifts. It is the ah-ha moment, where…
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Without a hint of bitterness or whiff of cynicism, I vow to have this world be more kind, gentle and better in the coming year. I further vow that since I am my own pickler-in-chief for at least some of the words, images and language I let marinate within my body, mind and heart, why not make…
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Charles Dickens, like all great artists knew that simply describing the idea of generosity would never move hearts or change lives. Rather, he wanted his readers of A Christmas Carol to feel and experience first hand the heart and soul-redeeming joy of helping others, while also experiencing the soul-starving, heart-breaking sadness and alienation of a…
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