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TAKING PART IN FAMILY LIFE

Family life takes time. Ask the Baldwins with their seven kids.
Keep that in mind, you youngsters, when you decide it’s time to join in.
Join the club, the family club, sooner than later.
Why?
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THE TRUTH, GETTING A HANDLE

Getting a handle on the truth shouldn’t be a big hurdle to clear.
All it takes is a little self-awareness.
The truth is your friend if you’re not too sketchy.
Will it set you free? Well . . .
It depends on the sort of shackles your used to.
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‘DOING RESEARCH’ AND OTHER EXCUSES

What counts as doing research?
For writers it’s an easy answer: Everything is research.
And because everything is research, the trick is finding what matters more.
Is it writing about where you are, how you feel, the people you’re with?
The correct answer? All of the above.
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TWO STORIES + ONE MAN = GREAT LITERATURE? OK LEO

Where does great literature come from?
From more than two stories, but first about ‘that man.’
The great literature man.
Where does he come from?
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GRACE AND DIGNITY FOR AGING MILLENNIALS

I became my ‘brother’s keeper’ through misjudgment, and it wasn’t my brother but my father in-law.
Same idea, though. I think it’s the same idea.
And it was misjudgment, not a mistake.
What happened?
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toughen up

Stomp Out Cancer: When Not If

    Stomp out cancer is a campaign with the hashtag #stompoutcancer.   Cancer survivors from OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital joined Nike and UofO to help create the uniforms the Ducks wore for Stomp Out Cancer.   Their efforts are a ray or hope for everyone crossing the line from cancer treatment to cancer survivor. […]

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?” […]

NORMAL TO NEW NORMAL A SHORTER WALK

    Exercise geeks always have something wrong. Not the biggest complainers in any room I’m in, but it’s always something. Why? Because small nagging aches and pains are proof of a finely tuned machine.   Like a racehorse where every muscle glistens down the backstretch. Or a fastball pitcher, guys who look like their […]

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boomer years

A BOOMER FAMILY TREE GROWS CLOSE TO TOWN

 BUT NOT TOO CLOSE. When people say it’s best to live close to the land, what do they mean? Call it the rural side of life. The closer the better. It’s a perspective fewer and fewer are blessed with. Country living shows you the cycles of life, the cycle of many lives, like a live […]

INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN BOOMER

I hear you asking, “What’s a ‘proven’ boomer?” You know what a ‘made man’ is in the Mafia? They’ve taken an assignment from the boss and done good with it. Usually the assignment that makes you a Made Man also makes you a Button Man. You push the button, pull the trigger, you’re a made […]

HOSPICE, A DANGLING CONVERSATION

The borders of our lives. Boomers have heard this more than once, others will hear it more later on: The closer people get to death, the more they drop their facade. There’s no one left to impress, no one left to pretend for, no one to juke. Toward the end it seems we get the […]

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buckle up

SPACE NEEDLE BECOMES LAMP POST IF SEATTLE GROWS THE WRONG DIRECTION

    Reading right to left the image of Seattle changes from working port town Seattle to big league sports town Seattle to gorgeous big-city-over-water skyline Seattle, the equal to any world center. And then the forgotten Space Needle. There it is all by itself on the left. Alone. Can we finally agree? Seattle is […]

Baby Boomer Travel, pt 1

Plan Ahead Or Suffer. Once you step out your front door the machinery kicks into gear. It’s either too late to change plans, or you don’t want to be the one changing. Be a good sport. Baby boomers know how to be good sports. We also know how to whine so don’t be alarmed when […]

LEARNING TO LEARN PORTLAND BIG AND SMALL

  Life long learners need classes to learn Portland?   A New York man moved to Portland in his fifties. He returns to The City every year to find something new. “Just walk around the financial district in lower Manhattan and you can read the history of the area on the sidewalk,” he said. “I […]

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