Recovery. Sobriety. Living Wise.
Today I found a poem by Theodore Roethke sitting in my inbox. My good friend Neil Vance sent it without a message. It hardly needed one. The poem is entitled “Infirmity.” I read it and my soul was enlarged a thousand times. Theodore Roethke passed away in 1963. At the time he was living on Bainbridge Island near Seattle and teaching at the University of … Continue reading Infirmity
We hear the word smart being used a lot these days. Companies want to locate near smart people. Employers like hiring smart people. Advertisers like selling to smart people. We are awash in all things smart. We have smart phones, smart watches, smart cars and smart homes. We even have smart apps to navigate for us, spell for us, budget our money, brew our morning coffee. Why … Continue reading Smart or Wise?
Where do the poor find wealth? Amazon’s recent adventure in New York turned out to be a kind of morality play for me. I found myself thinking how hard it is to turn down the promise of wealth and how easy it is to get mesmerized by the lure of great riches. So when the New York community pushed back against Amazon hard enough that … Continue reading Poor Man’s Wealth
[Originally published June 10, 2017] Some time ago Marsha and I watched Henry Fonda in the movie Young Mr. Lincoln. Afterward, I wondered whether we would ever again see anyone with the character of Old Abe. Then I wondered, would I even recognize such a person if he or she crossed my path? What struck me about Lincoln’s story was how little of his background … Continue reading Seeing Humanity in the Strangers Among Us
A new year has arrived and I’ve been waiting for a spark of inspiration to launch me into 2019. Quite frankly, its been hard. Inspirational moments have been hard to come by. I’ve felt like a nomad in a parched desert in search of a watering hole, only able to find bitter wells. I find my spirit has soured, turned in on itself, and tricked … Continue reading Getting Out of Your Head