60 lessons from 60 years
A birthday list of 60 things I’ve learned in my (now) 60 years of life.
All posts tagged: Random DJB Thoughts
Quest for the Best (2015 Edition, Round 2)
Since our last report on our quest to see the Best Picture, Candice and I have seen three more of this year’s nominees. So let’s get to it. We walked to our “commercial” theatre (the Regal) in downtown Silver Spring earlier this week to see Selma. This movie has had its share of controversy, from the treatment of Lyndon Johnson in the film, to the snub from the Academy in terms of award nominations. David Oyelowo was excellent as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a performance certainly deserving of a Best Actor nomination. But the film was stilted at times, and uneven. Selma is not the year’s Best Picture, but it is the most important film of the year. We forget too quickly how difficult it was to attain rights for all, and how much pressure there is, even today, to restrict or even take away those rights. I have members of my extended family who love to wave the Confederate flag, without any understanding of what that really means. I grew up in …
Well, This Will Be Easy
Well, not watching Super Bowl 49 will be easy! Last year I wrote a post saying I was through with the NFL. I even gave 10 reasons. (And yes, Daniel Snyder topped the list and he still holds the top spot after this year’s debacle.) I’ve pretty much kept to my promise. But to find out today that my least-favorite teams – the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots – will be in the Super Bowl is just perfect. We have the battle of the super-egos (and with these two teams, you can pick multiple candidates). After Seattle won today, I heard Russell Wilson gushing about how God had prepared him for a game like today. I’ve got news for Russell Wilson: God doesn’t give a damn about whether the Seahawks win or lose. Or the Patriots. Or the Nationals, for that matter. (Just to prove that I’m an equal opportunity atheist when it comes to God and sports.) She has much more important things to do. I think I’ll be watching paint dry …
A revolting development
Early last week I received an email from a colleague that said, “Hi David. I wanted you to know that I am in your hometown of Murfreesboro tonight (for a work-related dinner)…What a wonderful place!” She’s right about the last point. I’ve written about the wonders of growing up in Murfreesboro before on More to Come…. I suspect she had driven past the Rutherford County Courthouse all decked out for the Christmas holidays on the town square, and I suggested she drive by 407 E. Main Street to see “the old home place.” (Photo below – our old home is the one on the right.) Little did I know that I’d be driving by those same sites in just a few days. But life has a way of intruding on the best-laid of plans. (So who cares if I haven’t bought the first Christmas present?) On Thursday, my phone lit up at work as both my sister and brother called multiple times within about ten minutes and I feared something was wrong. I soon learned. …
The “Not All Who Wander Are Lost Tour” Lives On!
Regular readers will recall those intrepid travelers – Claire and David – making their way cross-country in August on what I dubbed the “Not All Who Wander Are Lost” tour. For twenty days, father and daughter crossed this great land, all the while keeping readers of More to Come… updated on our travels with daily posts, photos, and stories. It was a once-in-a-lifetime bucket list adventure for both of us. So you can imagine my delight when Claire told us a few weeks ago that she had placed a map of the US on the wall in her dorm room, with the route outlined and photos from the trip displayed along the way. Old school wall posting. Oh my…do I love that daughter of mine! The first thing I did when Candice and I walked into Claire’s dorm room on this late October/early November “she’s not coming home for Thanksgiving so we’re going out to see her” visit, was to go and see THE MAP. And I wasn’t disappointed. Just look at that beauty. Twenty …
Music of Water + Fire
Saturday evening’s WaterFire Providence – an award-winning sculpture installation featuring 100 blazing bonfires floating atop the water of Providence’s rivers – was capped with a terrific Brown University Chorus concert of Water and Fire-theme music. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful fall Saturday of activities during the university’s family weekend. After a late-night Friday dinner at Gracie’s (if you go to Providence you must eat at Gracie’s, and then have breakfast at Ellie’s, the restaurant’s partner bakery), we slept in a bit on Saturday but made it up in time for a fascinating lecture as part of the Family Weekend Forums. Professor of Medicine Richard Besdine spoke on Fit at 50, Sexy at 70, Nimble at 90: The Fundamentals of Healthy Aging to a room full of parents who looked a great deal like us! (He added the “Nimble at 90” part of the title on the fly, and noted that our children’s granddaughters – Andrew and Claire’s granddaughters – would have a life expectancy of 100.) While there wasn’t anything we hadn’t …
Cheerfulness
Cheerfulness is a choice, a habit, that we turn to each morning and “hang on to as long as possible.”
A Change in the Pecking Order?
Local all-news radio station WTOP runs a segment entitled Core Values with commentator Chris Core. Today, he had a segment that was music to my ears: a change in the pecking order of local sports teams. In one minute, Core sums up why everyone is fed up with the Washington football team. (Oops, I almost wrote their nickname, which many see as offensive.) There are multiple reasons to be tired of this team (e.g., Fed Ex Field, the team stinks, they mortgage their future for a perpetually injured quarterback), but the primary reason is that everyone despises the owner. I’ve made the same point before! Then Core turns to the Nationals. The owners are great (and they stay out of the way of the professionals). They play in a beautiful park (and he could have added that it is accessible by Metro). They have a great chance to get to the World Series and they are primed to be good for years to come. Then Chris Core does something really great…he let’s out the Section …
Twelve influential books (and a few more thrown in for fun)
Since I left Facebook about 18 months ago, I miss 99.5% of the silly contests, lists, and challenges that clog the social media world. And even when I was on FB, I would occasionally take one of their lists — such as the five albums I’d most want on a desert island — and expand that into blog posts (as in album #1, #2, #3, #4, and #5). But the other day, my sister Debbie put up a list of ten influential books in her life, and asked Candice to do the same. The challenge was to come up with the list quickly. Both Debbie and Candice had great lists, and that made me think about what my list would look like. So…here is my off the cuff list of twelve books that I’ve read (and usually re-read, and re-read). Since this is my blog, I’m not going to be bound by the FB convention of ten. And, in fact, you’ll see I’ve thrown in a bonus book or two along the way. Through the …
If You Have Loved Then You Have Cried
Today I spent about two hours on an errand. In a car. After driving 4,590 miles in August, I’m not looking for more time behind the wheel. Plus, it was an errand that should not have been required. The fact that I had to take the time to do it was affecting my blood pressure. Then, out of the blue, I found out why I was in that car today. In driving down into Virginia by myself, I put my trusty playlist on the car system to become immersed in the music. Soon came a voice that I could listen to sing the phone book. But today his song was much more profound than the yellow pages. Time is a river with no riverside Space a sea that has no tide I can’t get across, no it’s too wide If you have loved then you have cried And then the second verse: We are dust that was made in stars Now we roll off to work in cars When we were young we spilled our …
MORE TO COME... 