To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Music historians call it Stevie Wonder’s “classic period.” Pop music fans simply call it miraculous. During a four-year span (1972-1976), the Motown singer/composer, who had just turned 21, churned out five albums of extraordinary, even explosive creativity. Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale, and Songs in the… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Hope is life’s extraordinary antidote for discouragement. That doesn’t mean that success always comes easily. Winston Churchill was once asked what most prepared him to sustain his lonely fight against Adolph Hitler throughout the 1930’s (when many British leaders saw no danger in the Nazi regime), and how he found the courage to rally… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here For generations of toymakers, the Holy Grail was a doll which could talk. Thomas Edison gave it his best shot. During the late 1800s he planted actual phonograph records inside dolls. But the technology proved to be unreliable, and communication was limited to the single word “Mama.” Besides, an Edison talking… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” That’s a great quote. Those 21 words are routinely attributed to Mark Twain. In fact, I attributed them to Twain in a reflection a number of years ago. So did the… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Schools are constantly changing. Every few years kids are drawn to new fashions, new pop stars, and new definitions of what is cool. Old Math gives way to New Math which ultimately reverts to Old Math. Educators adjust what rightfully belongs to the core curriculum, and school board members adjust to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Journalists are running out of words to describe the cataclysmic wildfires that have devastated Los Angeles and surrounding communities. Apocalyptic. Unimaginable. Catastrophic. Heartbreaking. Life-altering. Firefighters have been battling fierce Santa Ana winds and hydrants devoid of water. At least 16 Angelenos are known to have died, and damages are expected to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here What goes into the flavor of a great-tasting tomato? That question is more complicated than it sounds. Exquisite tastes are seldom straightforward things. Summer-ripened strawberries, for instance, offer a symphony of about 600 distinguishable flavors. Rich chocolate turns out to be a rock concert of more than 900. And chocolate-covered strawberries? No wonder they’re… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Jimmy Carter, whose life will be celebrated today at his funeral at the National Cathedral, has always been an anomaly among U.S. presidents. His one term in the Oval Office (1977-1981) ended in apparent disgrace. Voters, weary of stagflation and the Iran hostage crisis, rewarded his opponent Ronald Reagan with a… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Of the more than 4,300 episodes featured over the years on Sesame Street, #1839, which aired on Thanksgiving Day 1983, stands alone. That show has been identified as one of the ten most influential moments in the history of daytime TV. During that episode, the Sesame Street cast confronted the real-life… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Last year Mary Sue and I did what an average American will do 11.7 times during the course of their life. We moved. We left behind the little horse farm where we had lived for almost 19 years and moved to another little horse farm about a dozen miles up the… Read more »
