To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Certain animals look as if they could only have sprung from the imagination of Doctor Seuss. One of those is the gerenuk antelope, a reclusive member of the gazelle family that lives in the semi-arid grasslands and deserts of east Africa. Europeans didn’t even know of their existence until 1879. “Gerenuk”… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here When Michael Jordan announced the first of what would ultimately be his three retirements from the NBA, Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago Bulls, made this proclamation: “He’s living the American Dream. The American Dream is to reach a point in your life where you don’t have to do anything you… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Most people fantasize, from time to time, what it might be like to be the richest person on earth. What if we could buy anything a human heart might possibly desire? For William Randolph Hearst, that fantasy was reality. He actually did buy anything his heart desired. In the process of… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here So, you want to live forever? Most people do, you know. “Our frantic efforts to outlive ourselves” have been primary shapers of human culture for thousands of years. That’s the conclusion of Professor Clay Jones, a faculty member at Talbot Seminary in Los Angeles, in his recent book Immortal: How the… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here On November 1, 1755, the citizens of Lisbon, Portugal were crowded into churches. They were celebrating All Saints Day. At 9:40 am the world as they knew it came to an end. Somewhere offshore there was a sudden lurch at the intersection of two massive tectonic plates. What followed was one… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Eat and Get Out. That’s the slogan at Ed Debevic’s, which since 1984 has been one of Chicago’s iconic restaurants. Ed’s is a not a subtle dining experience. The cuisine appears to have been tele-transported from the 1950s – huge burgers, hand-dipped shakes, jumbo hot dogs, and cheese fries. The servers… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Last week I had a great adventure with a special 13-year-old. As each of our nine grandchildren crosses the threshold into their teens, I’m hoping they will want to join Bah Poo (that would be me) on a trip to a state of their choice. Nico, the oldest of our grands,… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In 1896 a company named Sperry & Hutchinson came up with a brilliant idea. They began to sell green-colored stamps to retailers – department stores, supermarkets, and gasoline stations – who then gave them away to their customers in proportion to the goods they bought at their stores. It took a… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here If you live somewhere in the United States, you don’t have to join a safari or head to an exotic locale to come face to face with an extraordinary creature. The odds are fairly good there’s an opossum somewhere in your neighborhood right now. And even though they are among the… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Brains are amazing. The organ that occupies your cranium right now is a grayish mass about the size of a softball. Remarkably, it’s about 80% water. Even though your brain represents only 2% of your body weight, it devours something like 20% of your daily energy. Research has demonstrated that you began… Read more »
