In a discussion with some students, I was made aware of the startling number of hours teenagers spend “on their phones.” When I asked what they did with all that time, they admitted that mostly their time was spent using apps like Snapchat and Instagram, browsing others’ posts and pictures …
In teaching literature, my students often ask me the same question I asked when I was a student. Why, in literature, do protagonists always have to battle such unpleasant things? After discussion, we always swing back to the answer: overcoming obstacles is part of the human condition. Whether we succeed …
Several months ago, I read the story of a toddler who had wandered in the woods while his grandmother watched him. He was lost for days. I remember waking up each day actively searching the news and waiting for the gut-punch when I glimpsed a headline that his body was …
Today’s Fantastic Friday post is short and sweet. When we were transferring my son from his bassinet-style cradle to a regular crib, there were some rough patches as he learned to self-soothe. We found this video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/2SmUkXtQIPc I had tried several different ones, and this one popped up …
Read on at the end of this post for a book giveaway. When I was a kid, my parents used to take my sister and me to the local nature center. Even in the winter, we’d go on hikes there. In addition to an amazing statue of a mama bear …
Last week, I stopped at McDonalds for breakfast on the way to work. Long story short, a man in a truck decided to cut in front of me in line IN THE DRIVE THRU, going to contortions to pull his truck in front of my car. (If you want the …
It seems not too long ago I wrote of the death of my uncle. Today, I learned of another death. Bob Bonitz, who wrote under the pen name R. C. Bonitz, was a founding member of The Spot Writers, a writing group I belong to. The four of us take …
The day I moved into my house, I was driving with my corgis in my packed car in the first of a dozen trips to the new place. The road, a minor highway, settled from a crowded interchange near my old home to more of an abandoned, rural highway (when …
One of my favorite positive websites to browse is humanprogress.org. The site is ripe with examples of the strides we’ve made as humans over generations. The site is highly “clickable,” allowing you to find data and statistics for things like falling rates of disease or the success of markets from …
I lost my uncle unexpectedly recently, and that got me thinking about life. What does a life boil down to? What are the ways we all affect each other? More people than expected showed for the viewing, and it seems no matter how isolated we may seem, we impact our …