Six years ago, swing dancing changed my life. Now I dance tango, waltz, swing, and blues. I wanted to share dance lessons — not the footwork, but the developmental ways in which partner dancing has helped me personally: * Resolve Few people actually have “two left feet”. The first times…
Stars
Look up my friend, look up to that night sky above you. Those stars you see, impossibly far from where you stand, are the same ones I see. Those stars, some have witnessed the birth of humanity, others burned out a millennium ago and all we see is an echo.…
My Father’s Advice
I would have loved to write a public love letter to my wife, to my two daughters and tell everyone why I have the greatest parents, in-laws, siblings and family. I wanted to discuss the physics behind Baumgartner’s free-fall from the edge of space, share the world’s best pie and…
Grandma at the Party
My cousin got married last night. She is the first among my generation to get married, so this is the first time in over a decade that this branch of the family has been all in one place. Right now many of the people I care most about are recovering…
Quality Time with My Grandparents: An Audiotape to Remember
This was a day I won’t forget. I won’t let myself forget it. Here is how quality time with my grandparents unfolded one afternoon. I was in college at the time and assigned a project to record the childhood of someone important to me. I chose my grandma, who I knew…
Want to remember more stuff?
Sometimes, we cannot recall things which we want to recall, and we cannot see a full picture due to missing details. We are afraid to make a decision since we don’t know the outcome, and all this leads to mistakes that we prefer to avoid. It would be great if…
Choosing
This month marks the seventh anniversary of finding out I had multiple sclerosis. I was stunned. Irrationally, I was certain that I had already been through enough hard stuff, so I shouldn’t have to deal with any more. I lost an eye in a childhood accident. I was widowed at…
Marriage Identity
When we were planning our wedding, Jamie and I talked about names. I started from the assumption that she would be taking mine; she started from the assumption that we would make that decision together. So I told her that I had always believed my wife would take my name, that…
Harsh, But Something to Think About
I am not asking my question rhetorically. My sister-in-law is a nurse at a hospital. This was the topic of discussion recently. A “code” is an emergency that sends a large team of doctors, nurses, technicians and others to a patient who is unresponsive, not breathing, or pulseless. It is…
A little message about Meat
I find I have a few things I often admonish people about, and I’ll share one now. On the weekends, run a small take-out BBQ. This particular job involves lots of prep work and any needed welding and fabrication to keep things in good shape. Now, as stated before, my intention…