When my siblings and I were growing up, our mother had great go-to phrases when we complained about our sad lot in life. …

Once upon a time, there was a young woman named Mary. She was a cook in private homes in New York and New Jersey in the early twentieth century. She had quite the reputation as a cook, her employers were particularly fond of her ice cream recipe. When she left…

“It’s in my nature”. That’s what the scorpion said after fatally stinging the frog who had carried him safely across the river. In September 2019 a friend asked me who I thought would be president in January 2021. I thought about this à la the frog and scorpion fable. The…

Everyone has a story of why voting matters. If you don’t vote, you are writing someone else’s story. Today voting matters to me because we in the United States of America have been given a gift that many people never get, the right to put our needs on the record…

A two part essay on re-entering society and reclaiming rights. It is said that there are only so many plots, no truly new stories. The parable of saving one starfish is the age old story of the underdog. You know, the one about a child on a beach filled with…

When a critical number of people see a problem, some start seeing an answer. This essay has to start with a shout out to one of my favorite urban legends/intellectual theories — The Hundredth Monkey Effect. In short, this is a reference to a 1950’s research study of monkeys, which…

China and the Unites States are in the midst of trade negotiations. There are China-Europe and China-Everywhere-else-in-the-world negotiations going on as well. There is a long and complex history which illuminates the differences, striking or nuanced, between the players. Here is one small piece of that history. In 1911 Eva…

Whatever is coming next is opportunity for success in ways you haven’t imagined yet. Happy New Year 2019! Many have said goodbye and good riddance to 2018. I can empathize. Done with that, I now reclaim my perspective on what is important and gets me moving on the projects I…

The Founding Fathers understood that to protect themselves from each other they had to agree to protect each other from themselves. The foundation of the US Constitution comes down to the Golden Rule, treat others as you want to be treated. In virtually every Article and Amendment there is language…