I met great-great-great Aunt Sally on a hot August day. She was the oldest surviving member of the family. I was 7. I’d never heard of her before. . She was in her late 90’s and was out in the garden sitting on the ground in her sunbonnet picking beans. She looked ancient to me.
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Laughter Becomes You
I’m a big fan of laughter. It’s a universal human trait. I use it in my personal life and in my coaching. But I’m curious: Why do we laugh? It seems to be something uniquely human. . That’s what I thought until I learned that 65 different species of animals have their own sort of
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The Bad Jam Gig
I’ve been in bands for a long time. I’ve loved my various band mates, hated them, and hidden with them when fights broke out in scary places we played. I’ve been hit on and heckled by drunks. Women have threatened to kick my ass because their boyfriends liked my singing. . I’ve met lifelong friends.
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Little Red Convertible
I have a little red convertible story. Calm down, Prince fans. It’s not a little red corvette story. Crap, now I’ll be humming that song. ♥ My daughter was here for a month. Home for her is NYC, a place she adores. So interesting because she’s such an outdoorsy kind of woman who grew up
Read MoreCompany on a Desert Island
Who would you choose to be stranded with on a desert island? Just 2 of you. No idea how long you’ll be there. Give it some thought. . The pandemic has been hard on friends, roommates, and family. It’s been an acid test of how we see the people we love, what we’re willing to
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Unexpected Adult Education
I once worked with a bookish guy named Tom. What I didn’t realize was how naïve he was. Tom came from a religious family and had led a sheltered life. When he started college, he needed to get a part time job. He was so excited when he came across an ad in the newspaper
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Chicken foot dominos
Here in the Midwest, people still get together and visit on the porch, make music, play euchre, and have happy hour together. And they play chicken foot dominos. There are quite a few versions of chicken foot but it’s an easy game to play. Everyone makes mistakes, laughter can be uproarious and prolonged, the players
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A Close Encounter with Herkimer
I drive these country roads daily. Mostly I encounter potholes, people driving in the middle of the road, quarry trucks, and tailgaters. But one morning as I maneuvered down a double S curve, I came face to snout with a black bull. I can’t even begin to describe how massive this creature was that was
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Mom and the Clinique Counter
Aging. The whole topic of aging is loaded with unexploded emotional and self-worth landmines. We never know how to navigate around aging safely. Young people want to look older. Older people want to look younger. People lie about their age so often they actually forget how old they are. They avoid talking about their age,
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The Tooth Fairy’s Assistant
The tooth fairy. What a concept. Apparently it’s French. My dad was the tooth fairy’s assistant in our family. He was in charge of pulling loose baby teeth. Dad was very sneaky about getting baby teeth out of my head. I thought I knew his latest trick and then wham! He’d find a way to
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Mannequin Maidens
There’s a house near me whose occupants have a sense of humor. In the country, lots of people have old cars, junk, and painted ancient farm equipment in the front yard. It’s rare to see statues or even gazing balls. These folks have three pregnant, headless, armless mannequins. When they first put these ladies out
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The Mystery of the Brown Shoes
The other day I drove by the hotel where my mom and dad stayed years ago for my niece’s wedding. My gentle and loving father was showing the first severe signs of Alzheimer’s, and this was the last trip they took before he was no longer able to travel. . They’d booked a room at
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