Tag: love

  • We Were Here

    There are far too many people taking selfies, but there are also far too few people taking selfies. I know. You’re probably thinking, What the heck does that mean? Bear with me. First, you need to understand the basic premise of the selfie. At its worst, the selfie is an act of selfishness and vanity.…

  • When the Words Leave the Page

    I am a career educator. Eleven years in the classroom. Two years as a resource teacher. Thirteen years as an administrator. Along the way, I’ve been an athletic director, ASB advisor, journalism instructor, tech lead teacher, and advisor for technology and photography clubs. I’ve coached pretty much every sport at one point or another—and probably…

  • About Your Son, Connor…

    Some thoughts on kids, consequences, parents, schools…and the questionable decision-making abilities of developing humans Your kid messed up; Welcome to the club. Nobody enjoys getting that phone call from school. You know the one. “Hi, this is the school. Do you have a minute to talk about something that happened today?” There is almost no…

  • Oh, God… Not That Kid!

    There are burdens that come with being a career educator. You carry a lot of kids with you. Not literally, of course. Although after enough years in education, your back probably hurts enough that it feels like you have. You carry their stories. Their struggles. Their successes. Their bad decisions. The ones you worried about.…

  • The Secret Lives of Monkey Mitty

    There’s something wonderfully undignified about a nap. You can be a fully grown, functioning adult with responsibilities, obligations, and a perfectly reasonable schedule, and yet the moment your body decides it’s had enough, all of that gets overruled. The body calls the meeting, declares an emergency, and sends you to bed without consulting management. Some…

  • I Like Caramels, But I Digress

    Someone recently asked me my opinion about something. And that got me thinking. Not necessarily about the thing I was asked about, but about this whole business of opinions in general. Because these days, it seems like everyone has one. About everything. And apparently, I’m no exception. In fact, there was a time when that…

  • My Two Cents: Penmanship Won’t Save Civilization, But Hear Me Out

    I’ve been thinking about something lately. There seems to be a rise in student misbehavior at school. More parent complaints about incidents. More short tempers. Less tolerance. Fewer boundaries. Less resilience. And, apparently, a growing number of bipeds of all ages who can eat an entire meal, conduct a social gathering, complete a work assignment,…

  • Reincarnation: Because Apparently Once Wasn’t Enough

    I have been thinking about reincarnation. Not because I necessarily believe in it, but because, frankly, if there is a system in place whereby we are all given multiple opportunities to get life right, I have several questions.  First: Who approved this? Because the idea sounds wonderful on paper. You die. You come back. New…

  • We Didn’t Call It Retro

    I have reached an age where I am no longer entirely sure whether I am living in the present or being repeatedly mugged by my own past. It started with the clothes. I overheard a kid at school call a pair of jeans “vintage.” Not old. Not used. Not somebody’s pants that had been sitting…

  • Sketching With Words

    Someone asked, “Dude, where do you find the time to write so much? You’ve posted like ten days in a row—sometimes multiple pieces in a day.” The answer is rather simple: I’m just that good! No, I’m kidding. Seriously, though, I write every day. Even if it’s just a sentence, a thought, a concept—something that…

  • Little Lessons in Wonder

    Lately, the clouds have been a constant presence in our skies. From the moment I leave the house for work in the morning until the sun finally slips below the horizon, they seem to follow the day, painting and repainting the sky, catching and reflecting the light in ways one could hardly imagine. Some mornings…

  • And You Wonder Where They Got That

    Children are remarkably observant. They watch everything we do. They watch how we talk, how we eat, how we drive, how we treat people, how we respond when someone cuts us off in traffic, and—perhaps most importantly—how we behave when we think nobody is watching. Then they do the same thing. We call it “monkey…

  • Still…

    Two years. It’s been two years since you left us. Nothing can ever prepare you for a loss like that. It sits heavy on your heart, in your entire being. Nothing ever truly lightens the load. It is hard every day, and especially hard at all the milestones—the anniversaries, the birthdays—and incredibly hard on the…

  • The Soundtrack of Memory

    I play trumpet for a mariachi, and I sing too.  And for those who are familiar with it, mariachi music is perhaps one of the most emotionally driven musical genres there is. I’d say arguably, but I am biased. Whatareyagunnado? Recently, we’ve played quite a few funerals, along with a whole lot of birthdays and…

  • Like Group Norms with Better Lighting

    There’s that famous scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian where Brian tells the crowd they are all individuals and shouldn’t follow anyone. The crowd immediately responds, in unison, that they are all individuals. Then one guy quietly disagrees… and the crowd tells him to shut up. “You don’t need to follow anybody. You’ve got…