Musings

I saw the musical Hamilton recently and noticed some lines that made me think. General Washington says, “Even now, I lie awake knowing history has its eyes on me.” It is during the first act, and Washington is granting Hamilton his first command. He talks about all the mistakes he made early in his career, then he…

As summer approaches, so do blue skies filled with fluffy, white clouds. Clouds that weigh over a million pounds each! That’s right. Clouds are really heavy. However, the air below them is even heavier (actually, more dense). The molecular weight of a water molecule is less than the molecular weight of a nitrogen molecule or…

To hear my grandma talk about my grandad, you would think he was perfect. He was tragically killed as a passenger in a car that was hit by a train a few months before my father was born. When she spoke about him as I was growing up, she could have been talking about Superman.…

I flew Southwest Airlines recently. One of their mottos is “Don’t Make the Easy Hard” which seems to be exactly what they have done. Herb Keller knew that a valued employee would offer an extraordinary customer experience. Done well, this would ultimately result in the company and shareholders profiting. Somewhere along the line, they lost…

One of the things I learned in recovery was everyone has a role to play in our lives. We can have many friends, change therapists and sponsors, and even add extended family members through marriages and births. You cannot swap moms easily. The role of mother is unique and special. (So is the role of…

I was at West Point (Revolutionary War fort turned Military Academy) recently for leadership training with my team. West Point is literally named for the point of land that juts out into the Hudson River from the west bank as the river makes a tight S-curve. George Washington believed controlling this point and being able…

I rode the subway several times last week while I was in New York City (along with 6,335,700 other people). Every time I’m in Manhattan, it amazes me how much stuff is packed into the 23 square mile island. Over 1.7 million people live there, but the commuters raise that number to closer to 4…

Of course, you recognize that tagline. It was created in 1987 by Wieden + Kennedy to accompany Nike’s first major television campaign, and it was sparked by the last words of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore who said, “Let’s do it!” to the firing squad before his execution. Despite its inauspicious origins, this phrase has become…

When I was young, I loved to watch old sci-fi movies. One of my favorites was (and still is) the 1955 movie Tarantula about a lab experiment gone bad that results in a giant tarantula roaming the Arizona countryside eating cows and eventually an entire town before being taken out by the US Air Force. The movie…

It was wonderful to have several of my adult children join us for church on Easter. Our Pastor said something that caught my attention, though it was far from his main point. He was reading from Romans 10 where it says if we believe with our hearts and confess with our mouths, we will be…