Making the World a Better Place to Be
Lesson #4 A reliable support system is mandatory. Despite how physically, mentally, and spiritually tough you think you are, you cannot face this challenge alone. In his 2017 life manual Make Your Bed, Admiral William McRaven discusses 10 things that ‘can change your life and maybe the world.’ Number 2 on his list is ‘You …
Continue reading “Dealing with Cancer #4, You Can’t Go It Alone”
Is there anything better than laughter? I think not. Our house has been filled with smiles and laughter in recent days.
This post first appeared a decade ago, in March 2012. Since then – from my perspective – things have only gotten worse. Forty years ago, I habitually read The New York Times from cover to cover. I trusted the writers who were committed to writing the truth and to attributing their facts to sources. Today, …
We first wrote and posted this six years on December 21, 2012. Last night, December 14, 2018, Mrs. tVM and I watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” just as we’ve done every Christmas season for as long as I can remember. It always moves me in ways I can’t say much better than I did – with …
My mother passed away in August 2010; she died in the middle of the night in an assisted living facility not far from our home. My father passed away 24 hours ago; he died peacefully in his own bed in this house just like he wanted to. He was two months shy of his 93rd …
It is my Christmas ritual to share this piece every year. Maybe you can read it to a child… maybe you will just read it to yourself. I hope you read it, enjoy it and find value in it … Most people — certainly those younger than 60 — may only know “Ben-Hur” as a …
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, a day which was first declared a federal holiday in 1863 in the midst of the War Between the States by President Abraham Lincoln. It pains me to think that 150 years later, it is more often referred to as the day before black Friday. The year has been a challenging …
In 1979, my wife gave birth to our second child, a girl. I was shocked that a female could issue from my loins. Such was the limited vision of the world that I had those many years ago. I wanted to name her ‘Jean Marie,’ Jean for me and Marie for her mother, but friends …
Galena, Alaska sits on the north bank of the Yukon River on the 64th N parallel, just two parallels shy of the Arctic Circle. Flying out of Galena’s now inactive Air Station in the summer of 1973 in my T-33, I once saw the sun set and rise within a 15-minute stretch. As I climbed …
Yesterday morning as I waited in the foyer of an assisted living facility, I glanced at a basket filled with old magazines. The magazine on top of the pile was the AARP magazine. I am not an “AARP guy,” but the cover picture was a picture of a smiling Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez, better known …
