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PROMISES MADE IS ONE THING, THEN WHAT

Make a promise, keep it, and you’ve got promises made. It’s that easy, and that hard. It’s a badge of honor, but not a permanent one. Screw up, break your word, and you sink back into the muck with the rest of us losers trying our best to remember what we said we’d do. So […]

OLD STANDARDS UNDER STRAIN? HOLD MY BEER

Old standards are only for old people. Wrong. What’s wrong is the idea of standards, which I’ll clear up right now in case there’s any doubt: The Standard is the standard, no matter the age, young, or old. Got it? Good. So what exactly is The Standard?

WAY OF LIFE. WHOSE WAY OF LIFE?

I hear the words ‘way of life’ and automatically think of tribes deep in the Amazon who have never been out of the jungle. Instead of the variety of life found in America, I go straight to pre-contact indigenous people, who of course have had contact since we know of them. Pre-contact? Amazon jungle? In […]

OREGON LAVA CAST FOREST ADVENTURE? LET’S GO

The Lava Cast Forest in Oregon is not for the weak of heart. I say this based on the traffic I encountered on the way in and on the way out. One car sat in the parking lot when we arrived, one car showed up as we left. Suspicious? Not much, but you never know.

AGING FEAR FOR THE FIRST TIME

Aging fear kicks in when you start wondering about tomorrow. Will you be there for it? Why wouldn’t you? Oh, that’s why.

NEVER COMPLAIN, NEVER EXPLAIN, UNTIL NOW

I’m not a complainer, I never complain, and it’s a problem. If you don’t complain, then people think you’re perfect and living a perfect life. I don’t know a perfect anyone, let alone them living a perfect life. It’s sure not my life, probably not yours either? But you don’t complain? Thank you. Now it’s […]

FIGURE THINGS OUT BY WRITING THEM DOWN? OKAY BOOMER

Is it true you can figure things out by writing them down, or is there more to it? Who said, “I don’t know what I think until I write it down?” Who? Don’t panic, it was Joan Didion. I know questions make some people nervous. (Me) From National Public Radio:

DREAM STREET: 82ND AVENUE PORTLAND OREGON

  Dream street? 82nd Avenue? Somebody wake me up? No, it’s not a dream, but a street of dreams. And those dreams came to life.

HONOR CODE FOR WHEN YOU ‘KNOW BETTER’

An ‘honor code’ has always sounded like a ‘pinky promise.’ That’s when someone tells a secret and you hook pinkies to never tell. Ever. Is a pinky promise bigger and more important than an honor code? Hmmmmm?

STUMBLING STONES OF HARSH HISTORY

Last night I learned about Stumbling Stones, or Stolpersteine. They are memorial bricks laid for Holocaust victims at the last place they voluntarily lived before being deported for execution. Our friends told the story of the journey to their family’s former home in Germany, once known as East Prussia. They found the Stolpersteines outside the […]