What’s In A Christmas Card?

In an earlier era, I was very committed to giving out (and mailing) Christmas cards. I saw them as an opportunity to make a small difference in the life of the person receiving one. Over the years, I’ve gotten lazy in that operation. I give out very few, if any, Christmas cards. It’s not that […]

By habit, we often greet each other with the question, “How are you doing?” or some variation thereof (“How are you?” “How are things going?” “What’s going on?” What’s been happening lately?”) We generally don’t ask such questions with absolute seriousness. We’re just being polite. In many instances, we don’t really care how the person […]

In covering a topic this sensitive, I begin by offering a faith-based perspective which comes from my Latter-day Saint community and theology, and I do so to get it out of the way as a sort of preface, because this journal entry is not predominantly about that – not about religion or faith or theology […]

While I’m sure 4th Grade teachers in our public or private schools would not find their 9-year-old students amusing if said students were mouthy, disrespectful, and sassy, (and I concur with the teachers), I actually find a little sass somewhat amusing in the real world. While I would not tolerate disrespectful sass from subordinates in […]

We are flawed by nature. We make mistakes. We do wrong. We hurt others. We are sometimes selfish and self-centered. Some of us are even narcissistic at times. We make fools of ourselves. We say cruel things. We utter unwarranted insults. We are quick to judge. We sometimes take things that are not ours to […]

This is hard to talk about and I really don’t wish to divulge too much, but I need to point out that the more I interact with people (and I do interact with lots and lots of people from all walks of life and in very different circumstances and venues) the more I am noticing […]

There is a quote from a book I wished to use for this article. But I am frustrated because I can’t readily locate the quote. I wished to locate the quote so I could better understand the context of the quote. The quote is as follows: “. . . but perhaps he might gain internal […]

I met Linda in 7th grade. We became close friends in high school, as we were both singers in a vocal jazz group called The Harmattan. We were also close friends in high school because her boyfriend, Andy, was my best friend in high school. After high school (and after she and Andy went their […]

I recall an episode from my past, perhaps 30 or so years ago, I was in a grocery store in the Los Angeles area. Standing near the front of the store, right near the check-out lines, I saw several employees of that store talking frantically with each other. There must have been two or three […]

Judgment is a very important topic, and a lot of people have strong feelings about it, mostly negative feelings. Two Aspects of Judgment One aspect of the word involves the notion of exercising good judgment, as in making smart decisions or assessing situations with wisdom and intelligence. That’s a positive aspect of judgment. The opposite […]