I felt as if I’d dropped down Alice’s rabbit hole. The daughter of friends I’d known for years had one name, but I’d called her by another. I even invented a tag to remember it as we seldom meet: “M is for music.”  As it turns out, the girl’s name doesn’t start with �

A gentleman at my retirement facility returned from a visit with friends in Australia recently.  One of his hosts took him to a remote part of the country where they were joined by others who were his host’s friends.  As might be expected, the conversation turned to American polit

Words matter, and the right words matter most of all, according to writer John Birmingham.  History bears this out. During World War II, Winston Churchill’s speeches galvanized Londoners with hope despite the German Blitzkrieg. Let us, therefore, brace ourselves to our duties, and

As I relate in my upcoming memoir, Getting Lost to Find Home, during the rainy season in Sub-Saharan Africa deluges force creatures to rise from their holes in the earth to escape being drowned.  A person out of doors at such times is likely to encounter black mambas, scorpions, flyi

Who doesn’t love Michael J. Fox the scallywag actor from Back to the Future?  As most of us know, he’s fighting a losing battle with Parkinson’s disease and gave up acting last year because the illness now impairs his speech.  Even so, he remains active, writing books whil

Dick Van Dyke’s quote made me laugh.  At age 95,  he said he doesn’t spend a minute being depressed because at his age he needs to be  “enjoying himself.”  (AARP Bulletin, October 2021, pg. 46.)  At 85, I understand his urgency.  When the road is short, it’s wise to en