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GIVING UP, BUT NOT A QUITTER?

Giving up is different than quitting. Really. Quitting means done, all over, finished. The Day I Quit. Giving up is a longer process. One is a reaction, the other a journey. Who’s got the map?

CLEAR DOWN RANGE NEW MEANING

The first time I heard the call of “CLEAR DOWN RANGE” I was laying in the dirt with the guys, Fort Ord dirt, and trying to fit three bullets inside the diameter of a quarter. The best I got was two in with a stray nearby. The rifle range targets were a head and shoulder […]

HEALTH JOURNEY ON A ROUGH ROAD

A ‘health journey’ is a phrase used by people with lots of doctor appointments. If you’re old enough you either take that rough road yourself, or you show up for others on it. Personally, I’ve never liked the term. I like it even less when it applies to young people coming down with old people […]

HALL OF FAME: WHICH ONE IS FOR YOU

A Hall of Fame career deserves to be enshrined in a place of honor. Why? So others can see their accomplishments and try to copy them? That’s partly correct until you start learning more about the people. A great player doesn’t always mean a good person. But why limit inductions for only sports?

WRITING ROOTS: HOW DEEP DO THEY GROW

Writing roots are reading roots. Everybody knows that from their first grade if they had a teacher as good as Mrs. Baker. I recall her saying, ‘Our writing is a reflection of our reading.’ I believed it then as I believe it now. (Folding a corner to mark my place in Patrick DeWitt’s novel The […]

MICRO MEMOIR II: LEAVING TOWN CHRISTMAS PARTY

Leaving town used to be easy, if I remember right. Pack a bag, get in a car, hop on bus, and leave. “I’ll be there in a few days.” Same story going out to Brooklyn as leaving:

TOYOTA HIGHLANDER FOR LIFE?

I owned a Toyota Highlander, but it didn’t start that way. Somehow the wife and I went to a car dealership traded a van and ended up with a Rav4. She decided it was the worst car ever since I insisted on the barebones cheapest version. By the time we got home I knew it […]

HARD LOVE DADDY ON A HEALTH KICK

I saw hard love work on my Dad after he got his heart fixed. No smoking for the old chimney. The doc said it, the family said it, the friends said it. You’d say it too.

REWRITING HISTORY: HOW HARD CAN IT BE

People are rewriting history all of the time and don’t know it. If you repeat what you’ve heard to one person, and it turns out to be not accurate, what’s the big deal? Not so big for one person, but what if you repeat what you know to be false to millions of people? Do […]

TOO MUCH? TOO MANY? WHEN CAN YOU TELL

Too much of anything is a problem, but not when someone else tells you. You’ve got to tell yourself. It’s that simple. And that difficult. But, as usual, there’s more to it.