Chadwick Boseman’s death came as a shock to the world. He had many fans, as made clear when the announcement of his passing on his Twitter account became the most retweeted post ever. Boseman was only 43 and died of colon cancer. He was very young to have been afflicted…
I’ve shared parenting suggestions here a few times. Leo Babauta, who writes on his site Zen Habits, is one of my long-time, favorite, personal development writers. Last year, he posted about some of the life lessons he has taught his (now mostly adult) kids—lessons they shared back with him on…
In 1977, when my grandfather passed away at what then seemed like the ripe old age of 73, he had what was called senility. I remember visiting my grandfather in a nursing home. I remember helping him stay on the right page at religious services—services he previously had known like…
About six weeks into sheltering-in-place, I hit a low. As someone who is able to work from home, I am well aware my low is far higher than those on unemployment, which makes me a bit reluctant to talk or write about my situation. But, as I learned many years…
In the pre-COVID world, my daily work routine involved many meetings outside my office. I love being with people I know, and meeting new people. In the shelter-in-place world of COVID, I work all the time in my office (now located on one end of my dining room table), and…
Exposing yourself to new ideas is critical, and if you only read one article this month, I highly recommend this, powerful, important piece by Nikole Hannah-Jones in the New York Times Magazine. This long article is a short way to learn about the injustices Black people have faced in the…
Early last summer, I read Ibram X. Kendi’s 2016 book, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. It’s an amazing book I highly recommend, and I recommended it in my most recent post, Be an Antiracist. It was in that book that I first heard…
On August 19, 2015, I published a post about #BlackLivesMatter. In that post, I wrote about the movie Fruitvale Station, the true story about the tragic killing of Oscar Grant, which I had seen in 2013, coincidentally, around the same time I had read the extremely important, highly acclaimed book The…
All the talk about essential workers, and the realization that so many of the heroes of this pandemic have been people whose contributions to society were previously taken for granted, reminded me of something my wife told me. Last year she attended a seminar and the presenter held up a…
At my office, I have a desktop computer. At home, I’ve used a laptop for many years – but, until the past eight weeks, I had never used a laptop for eight or more hours a day. Two weeks ago, my neck started hurting. It got worse over the course…
In a shelter-in-place existence, figuring out ways to exercise, especially in small spaces, has been important. Just about a year ago, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal titled “The Best Exercises for Your 50s, 60s, 70s—and Beyond”. I held onto it for a few months and then…
In this horribly sad time of COVID, with so many families experiencing illness and the death of loved ones, by complete coincidence I just finished reading a book about death and dying. Many years ago, I read Complications by Atul Gawande. Gawande is a surgeon and his writing about his…