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Frazzled, Frustrated or Fearful? Focus on Your “Grass”
Several years ago I asked a friend and former senior executive at Markinor, a market research firm, how they came to a single-word mission statement. Sylvia recounted the following short story, which I...
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Till We (All) Have Faces
I wish it were possible to somehow insert an additional line into Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech - “I have a dream that one day we will be a nation and communities of faces.” A New...
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The Positive Power of Difference | Us + Them
I remember the wall that encased my third grade home in Kenya. It was quarried rock, thinly plastered with cement, and as a security measure, injected along the top with jagged, multi-colored shards...
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Merry-Go-Rounds and (my) Marriage
May 18th marks 28 years of marriage for my wife and me – although we’re doing a combo-celebration this week in San Antonio, where my wife is attending an advanced practice nursing conference. If I were...
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The Gift of “Cut To The Chase(rs)”
This morning I spoke plainly with my dawdling youngest daughter, because departure for school was rapidly approaching and she still had a number of daily and allocated responsibilities to complete...
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Numbers | Our (misplaced) Measure of Success
Regrettably, quantifying has become the standard, all-in-all measurement for defining success and identity. Quantifying is a global practice, yes, but distinctly North American. Numbers are thought...
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The Devolution of Children’s Development | A Call for (healthy) Boredom
Women’s rights have rightfully progressed since the days and era when even cigarette brands, like Virginia Slims, based their marketing on a then male-dominant social context; popularizing the slogan,...
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Consigned to Work for a Young American Family, a MuVenda Woman’s Enduring Gift
Allow me to tell you about Selinah Mahamba of Tshitavha/Sambandou; a village 30-minutes drive north of Thohoyandou/Sibasa, Limpopo Province, South Africa. Vho Selinah with our first-born, Daniel....
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Grandparents | Person and Place Specialness
When it comes to a grandparent or great-grandparent, memories of person are inseparable from place. My three younger daughters and I returned yesterday from a quick, 3-night trip to El Paso, where we...
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Two Words Affecting How People Different Are Viewed and Treated | God and...
Among “Christian America,” a person’s understanding of who God is, in particular, but also what salvation is influences the way s/he views and interacts with the world and its diversity of peoples,...
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Saying Hello To Life Begins By Saying Hello To Strangers
This blog’s heading is indebted to children’s singer and songwriter, Eddie Coker, and his song “Say Hello,” a line of which is, “And that’s how we say hello to life, forever – together everybody now...
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It Seldom Is What It Seems
Meryl Streep “had a farm in Africa.” In the third-grade, I had a friend in Africa. I don’t remember much about him. And, it’s probably good we didn’t grow up together. For in that short span of a year,...
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Why Kick a Man When He’s Down? | Smoking, Sin, Shaming and Salvation – Part 2
For those of you a-religious, or nominally so, this blog’s content might seem like a world “far, far away, in a distant galaxy.” If not relevant to you, it might at least be entertaining. In “Part 1” I...
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Our Pieces of Pie in the Sky | Part 3 of 3
This is the final blog in a series of three originally titled “Why Kick a Man When He’s Down? | Smoking, Sin, Shaming and Salvation.” Some delicious childhood memories of mine are of pies, especially...
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“I’m White and He’s Black!”
Growing up in then recent post-colonial Kenya, I don’t recall when, if ever, race consciousness hit me. My earliest recollections are a blended hue of white, black and brown. Kikuyu herdsmen, young...
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Ride A Hound, Discover E-Cigarettes & Connect With The (real) World
North America, even the entire world might be a kinder, more equitable and empathetic place if elected officials were required to ride public transport on a semi-frequent basis. It wouldn’t do the rest...
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Infamous Dates | A Personal Reflection on 9/11
*I invite you to share your remembrances of any infamous date under “Leave a Reply.” Mind numbing transformations of life and ways of living occur in the briefest and most unexpected of moments. . . ....
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4 Life Takeaways from “We Bought A Zoo”
If you can overlook that the actual zoo, Dartmoor Zoological Park, is in England instead of Southern California, as well as the fact that Matt Damon, aka Jason Bourne, is simply a widower with two...
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Speak the Silent Cries of the Innocent & of the Perpetrators
An unsettling consciousness of the contrast of my life in Austin with both the victims and perpetrators of violence at Nairobi’s Westgate Mall induced a restless sleep last night. I went to sleep...
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Secondary Fidelity | The Risk & Reality of Living Apart
The Context: Five years ago I upset a sweet, old lady; the grandmotherly type, who hugs and kisses on little children irrespective of whether they have been good or bad, and who would whip up a meal...
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