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BETTER LISTENING SKILLS FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING

If practicing better listening skills isn’t a life goal, it should be.
How hard is it to pay attention?
You did it in the classroom with the encouragement of a teacher.
I still remember Mr. Kraus singing ‘Toot toot tootsie goodbye’ when he tossed little tootsie rolls to students with the right answer in algebra.
Maybe we need more of that? Instead we get more of this:

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RETURNING REVERENCE TO IT’S RIGHTFUL PLACE

There’s a scent of reverence in the air, of returning reverence after a long pause.
It started in my doctor’s office where I’d been called to sit on a panel with others.
One of the others was Roy Pittman, one of my personal heroes.
The next time I saw the doctor he told me he was surprised at the way I acted, that I showed reverence to Coach Pittman.
If I did, I didn’t know it. What I remember is feeling awe-struck. Maybe it’s the same thing?
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NBA CHAMPION CROWNED, AGAIN

Becoming an NBA champion is a lifelong goal for every basketball player in the world.
The best want to play the best, beat the best, to tell themselves they’re good enough.
It’s that along with contracts and money and fame.
All of that goes along the wayside when you stop playing in ninth grade like me, or in high school.
Do I blame the coaches that I didn’t become a star, a substitute, or even a benchwarmer?
Noooooo, but . . .
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CLEAN LIVING FOR A QUIET LIFE

Clean living is an art form, and like all art it takes practice.
Yes, we’re talking about practice.
It takes practice to talk without a particular tone, without too much edge.
Do that and you may have a productive conversation.
Go ahead and save the tone and edge for people you don’t know, who don’t know you.
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I READ THE NEWS TODAY OH BOY

The news today is all about world events.
News organizations deliver it every day with the same hype and urgency.
News hounds consume every detail and load it onto the pile they carry in case someone asks them ‘what’s up?’
That’s when you brace yourself for the headlines as if they’re coming from an anchorman. Or woman.
That’s the big news story you NEED to know.
The small news, the stories that make us step back, come out another way.
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toughen up

TO MEN, FOR MEN, FROM MEN

  I’m posting this to men in the Toughen Up section because all the groping news seems like a medical issue, or mental health dilemma.   What goes through a man’s head in the heat of the moment, when the secret button locks the door, when you finally ask, “How much do want this part?” […]

CANCER SURVIVOR ESSAY STRUGGLE

    Stories about a cancer survivor are an inspiration to all cancer survivors. Even a cancer survivor essay about the trauma of being a cancer survivor holds important hope.   Pam Parker gets into it with a cancer survivor story in the Chicago Tribune.   It’s not pretty and sweet and all dolled up […]

BOOMER SUMMER SKIN CARE

Higher Temperatures Call For Baby Boomer Summer Skin Care. Skin is a living organ. It’s stuff that continually regenerates itself. If that’s hard to believe, scratch your arm over something dark. Look, you’re exfoliating and didn’t even know it. New skin sounds pretty good, like no maintenance. Baby boomers know better. We’ve been outside in […]

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boomer years

SEX, DRUGS, AND ROCK AND ROLL. OR JUST DRUGS

How To Live Next To A Heroin House. A move to the suburbs in most cities means a move away from drugs and crime. Not Portland, Oregon. My inner eastside apartment was too dangerous for a young family. Houses had metal barred windows and bad yards. The juice was never changing. It was a bad […]

Life Long Learners Get Life Lesson Whether They Learn Or Not

Life Lessons start early for writers, then they spend years figuring it out enough to make a joke, a poem, a short story, novella, novel. Maybe more, like a groundbreaking memoir. If it’s worth learning, it’s worth writing about to drill it in. Like most children of my generation, baby boomers, I had it made […]

Ben Affleck Married “What’s in your wallet” Girl And Lost His Way?

The Rocky Mountains are indeed rocky on an unreal scale. Literally rocks all over the place. In the ever changing landscape of our lives, we notice when a big rock makes a dangerous move. Ben Affleck is a big rock and he’s on a roll, from celebration to medication, which is what I call it […]

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buckle up

NEW IMPORT FOR OREGON BEER FANS

Wicked Weed, Asheville, NC, for Oregon beer fans. Name a better brand for Oregon beer fans than Wicked Weed. All things considered, it’s perfect. To make it even better, Wicked Weed Brewing makes great beer, one in particular. You won’t turn into one, but Freak of Nature rises to the top of my road beer […]

THE EXPLOSIVE BEAUTY OF THE NW

One Rule: Everything Changes. No, this isn’t the only region with snow on the mountains and this isn’t the only mountain. The Cascade Range pops up like continental acne, fueled by ocean crust diving under the heavier land plates, melting, and voila, volcanos. Capturing the power of geological force is one thing, capturing elemental force […]

Travel Bans From History, Who Should Be Banned

    Travel bans tend to be specific in terms of where to go and where not to go.   Travel bans say one thing: Don’t go there, girlfriend. Stay away, pal.   Like a dress code in the NY disco dancing prime time of the late ’70’s, while punk rock was getting ready to […]

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