To Be or Not To Be A few weeks ago my students were reading the "To be or not to be..." speech in Hamlet. Virtually everyone knows a part of it, whether they are aware of it or not. It's one of those things that is so ingrained in our culture that we aren't even … Continue reading After This Year, How Many Teachable Moments Do I Have Left (Part 1)
I remember, like so many others, exactly where I was when I heard the first plane was flown into one of the Twin Towers. I was sitting at my desk at my customer service job, answering phone calls, processing claims, and listening to The Howard Stern Show (very quietly). I remember there was some commotion … Continue reading 9/12/01 – Never Forget
His name was Patrick and he was lost. And he wasn't just lost, he was hopelessly, frantically lost and no one saw him. He was running around the Merry-Go-Round in Funland, just inside the Boardwalk at Rehoboth Beach, among the sweaty throngs of shore-dwellers who have long since left the sandy beaches, have gorged themselves … Continue reading I Was a Lost Boy Too
New Year's Resolutions are painful lost causes whose place in history belong next to the dodo bird, Laser Discs, and Donald Trump. I hate resolutions with a passion and I will joyfully troll my friends who claim they want to try to turn their lives around on January first. We all know that most resolutions die … Continue reading My Spirit Animal Called Me A Fatass.
A conversation is being held across dinner tables and in living rooms all over Maryland this fall, one that is being echoed all over our nation virtually every night. Hundreds of thousands of teachers are pondering what will they do if they can no longer teach? They are talking to spouses, lovers, and friends about the … Continue reading So What Do We Do Now?
I wonder if things would have turned out differently for the Olympians if Zeus would have ever climbed down from Mt. Olympus and just played catch with Ares. Or Hephaestus. Or any of his dozens of children for that matter. I wonder that if he took a more modern role in raising his children, there … Continue reading The Dwindling Mythos of the Father-figure.
"We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to … Continue reading Finding the Means to Live Deliberately
