Kim and I recently realized we've been living a lie. Allow me to explain. Being close to water has always been high on our list of values. We dreamed of living on a lake since our earliest days together. When we lived in Madison and worked toward that goal, we spent a lot of time enjoying the four lakes that embraced the city. When we went on vacation, we faithfully followed a rule: make a point to get a place on the water. Well, we recently spent a long weekend in Door County, and once we cleared space on the calendar, the next step was securing lodging. Naturally, Kim's knee-jerk …
Archives for November 2024
Top 10 Adultitis-Free Holiday Gifts for 2024
It's that time of year when we're all expected to give amazing, thoughtful, one-of-a-kind gifts to all of the important people in our lives (and a ridiculous number of not-so-important ones, too). It's enough to give anyone Adultitis. Fortunately, we have a list of 11 (see, we're already overdelivering!) gifts that will cover pretty much everyone on your list... …
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The Freedom in Hard Choices
Once upon a time, there was a couple. They had three kids and a good life. He made his living as an accountant and she was a doctor, but their real dream was to live on a ranch and breed dogs. One day, my wife Kim suggested they do that. The woman laughed. "It's not possible," she said. And so they didn't. The end. This is a true story, and similar stories just like it are lived out every day. Of course, the woman was wrong about it not being possible. Oh, she gave a list of reasons, but none of them made the option impossible. Risky, perhaps, or unconventional, or …
Ghosts In The Road
It was like driving through a sea of black ink. The trip back to our hotel from the Lamar Valley was harrowing. It being Yellowstone, the specter of animals hanging out on the road is always a possibility. We'd reveled in the wildlife of the North American Serengeti, but now the sun was gone and darkness blanketed the winding way home. My knuckles were white on the steering wheel and Kim's clear anxiety was less than helpful. We snaked around curve after curve, my eyes peeled for any signs of movement. Then we saw it: a small coyote trotting down the middle of the road. As we came upon …
Love Is In The Air
This painting is called "Love is in the Air." Our eyes draw us to the billowing steam from the geyser forming the shape of a heart. Indeed, it is a fitting representation of the way most of our society views love. Like the steam, it is a little mysterious, always changing, and dependent on which way the wind is blowing. Love is regarded as a fleeting feeling evident on a wedding day but which vanishes at some point in the ensuing years when life gets hard. I would like to invite us to look for a different, better metaphor for true love in this painting. Like the bison. The bison …