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NEW YORKER THURSDAY IN THE MAIL, A LESSON IN READING

The New Yorker magazine is my only subscription and I’m surprised how much fun it is. I actually look forward to it, which has been a surprise over the past year. I know what I’m doing on New Yorker Day:

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON MAKES IT THROUGH THE NIGHT

Kris Kristofferson died yesterday. I found out in a text from one of my guitar guys. “RIP Bobby McGee.” We mourned Tom Petty’s passing, now Kris. In baby boomer world, it’s reminder of our tenuous grip on life.

TAKING TIME, MAKING TIME

Taking time for the little things is something we’re supposed to do. Making time to get it right is always the challenge. In some worlds, maybe yours, time is elusive, slippery, until you get rewired one way or the other.

START AGAIN THEN FINISH

Is that the plan? Start, finish, and start again? Or is it start, abandon, and forget about it. Either way, you need a goal to keep going. If you can explain why you do what you do to yourself, and it makes sense, keep going. But what about explaining your work to strangers?

ROCKY RELATIONSHIP WITH WRITING?

My rocky relationship with writing took a turn yesterday. It happens, but this one was avoidable. Boomerpdx was offline for ten hours. The longest ten hours of my . . . not my life. I just did other writer things. What writer things?

COMPARISON CULTURE: BETTER THAN WHAT?

Comparison culture didn’t start with social media, but that’s where it found fertile ground. Baby Boomers and every generation before, all had the same comparison: My Dad is better than your dad. What comes after that? Maybe a fight.

SOFT LIFE WITH HARD EDGES

Living that soft life, but still need something to yell about. It’s either too soft, not soft enough, anything but just right. And that spells hard times in bold letters. Hard times for a soft life?

EXTRA EFFORT WHEN IT MATTERS

Extra effort often gives a big win in sports, at work, in life. Or you get lucky. After a big win you don’t need to do anything extra. So why do people ask, “What’s next?” after a big victory?

EMPATHY FEELINGS? LET ‘EM OUT

The first time I wrote out ’empathy feelings’, spell check went to ’empty feelings.’ Empty feelings might be a better key word, just not the one I’m looking for. But I got an empty feeling scrolling through twitter, through yahoo news, and every other post was red hat related. Honest blogger that I am, it […]

SCREEN SPACE vs AIR TIME: BEING HELPFUL

What are the goals of screen space and air time? Fill them up. That’s the primary goal. Secondary goals are making sense, being interesting, and ultimately trying to be helpful. I’m helpful. Which isn’t a way of asking, ‘Are you helpful?’