Category Archives: Humility

Tending to Your Own Business

Forty years ago I met a “good one”: an old gentleman who ran a shoeshine stand in the Eastern Airlines Shuttle Terminal at LaGuardia Airport.  I was never sure of his name but most people called him Pete. At the time the hourly shuttle between New York, Boston and Washington was among the busiest in the nation. Everyone was guaranteed a seat, No reservations needed, … Continue reading Tending to Your Own Business »

When Doubt is an Ally

“Doubt grows with knowledge.”  ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Today we hear many voices speak with the ring of dogmatic certainty, where the ugliest of ugly thoughts are hurled out to every time zone.  I find myself asking, how can so many be so sure of so much? Socrates once observed, “I know that I don’t know.  But you don’t know what you don’t know and … Continue reading When Doubt is an Ally »

Good Morning

Recently I had a fitful night of worry, tossing and turning, my thoughts uncontrollably circulating downward.  The impending move to the Pacific Northwest had me anxious.  It was two o’clock in the morning and I found myself counting all the things that could go wrong.  I thought, it’s one thing to have moved to Chicago at age 22, quite another to return to Seattle at … Continue reading Good Morning »

How I Found My Humor

“What monstrous absurdities and paradoxes have resisted whole batteries of serious arguments, and then crumpled swiftly into the dust before the ringing death-knell of a laugh” ~ Agnes Replier How my life has been shaped by humor. And to think how close I came to losing laughter forever. As a kid our home was filled with laughter. My dad was a laugh factory and his … Continue reading How I Found My Humor »

What Friends Can Do

(First published March 5, 2016) “The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well.”  – Alfred Adler When I think back on the friends from my life they look a lot like the characters from Peanuts. I often identify with Charlie Brown I’ve had best friends like Linus I had plenty of bossy Lucy’s along the way There have been wonderful philosophers like Snoopy and Woodstock … Continue reading What Friends Can Do »