I began writing this essay in September 1997 just after my first nephew, Tanner, was born. The first draft was written when I realized that for the first time I was in the “grandparent generation”!! After that initial shock, I began to dig deeper into the generations of our family and, with the help of… Continue reading →
My father died in 1992 at the age of 71. He was a wonderful Christian, husband, and father . . . in that order. To the best of his ability he tried to understand the teachings of Jesus and to live his life accordingly. I was my father’s greatest disappointment. It’s not that I’m… Continue reading →
In1997 when I began thinking about how we were educating leaders for our future, I was hopeful, even expectant, that the advances being made in neuroscience and emotional intelligence would transform the system by the year 2020. We’re now almost there, and I’ve had to realize that when the focus changed from educating the Whole… Continue reading →
Even though I wrote “Breakfast at McDonald’s:Reflections on Voices and Values” in 1999, I still remember the thoughts that were running through my mind that day like it was yesterday. I don’t think I ever shared it with anyone except Molly’s mother because I felt like it was too negative, too pessimistic. I felt that… Continue reading →
I wrote this poem the day after my daughter called to tell us that she was pregnant. On January 28, 2014 and we were in our RV at Lake Cahuilla in La Quinta, California. The news came as a shock for many reasons, and I’m afraid that my tone on the phone was not one… Continue reading →
This is not the same picture that I describe in “Memory Pictures,” but it is the same Paul. In this one he’s taking a picture of another sunset – 25 years later, and 40 miles north – from our home in The Cove at Brookings. When he took picture he called Beyond the End… Continue reading →
I wrote this piece during Spring Break in 1998 just after meeting my first nephew, Tanner. Tanner was 6 months old. Less than a month ago, on May 27, 2016, I got to watch Tanner giving the Salutatorian address at Oakmont High School in Roseville, CA. He’s off to Cal Tech in the fall …… Continue reading →
Jesus says nothing about focusing on the family. In fact, he said quite the opposite. A quick Google search for the question “What did Jesus say about family?” led me to pages and pages of sites that try to dispel the literal interpretation of Luke 14:22-27 where He says we must “hate” our family to… Continue reading →
