November 13 is World Kindness Day, and the whole week of November 13-19 is Kindness Week. No doubt you’ve heard of “random acts of kindness,” such as paying for a stranger’s cup of coffee or leaving money for someone’s groceries in line behind you.… Read More
According to MIT Professor Richard Larsen who studies such things, Americans spend roughly 37 billion hours a year waiting. Yes, I said “waiting.” A 2022 consumer survey, “The State of Waiting In Line” (on waitwhile.com) identified waiting in retail check-out lines as the most common… Read More
The first notice came in our community newsletter enclosed with the monthly water bill. The local contract for waste removal was expiring and had to be renegotiated. Of course garbage fees would be going up (isn’t everything?), but residents had choices that could… Read More
In Texas, especially in the summer, it’s all about beer and tequila. Decades of commercial advertising featuring rugged cowboys or wealthy patróns, along with memories (both real and imagined) of throwing back tequila shots with beer chasers in Border-town bars have enshrined both beverages… Read More
I am amused by the new Bud Light™ commercial. “Chill like you’re retired,” it proclaims just in time for summer. Sure thing. My husband and I are retired, but it’s 103º here in San Antonio and even our pool is at 92º! Now we like… Read More
Unruly weather notwithstanding, spring has finally sprung: flowers are blooming and Mother’s Day is upon us, graduations have already begun in some areas of the country, the Memorial Day summer send-off is not far away, and travel prediction numbers are approaching pre-2019 levels. June may… Read More
I don’t really like Easter. Now before anybody starts screaming “sacrilege,” let me clarify that it’s not the life-death-rebirth spiritual message celebrated by Christians in churches, nor is it the metaphor of the cycle of nature celebrated by solstice revelers that bothers me so much… Read More
Anyone who writes or crafts speeches or otherwise wrestles with words knows that all synonyms are not created equal. Dip into almost any thesaurus and you will find numerous entries for words that mean the same, or nearly the same, as the one you are… Read More
In the Christian tradition, both Eastern Orthodox and Western, January 6 is celebrated as the Epiphany, or Feast of the Three Kings. The word “epiphany” comes from the Greek word “epipháneia” meaning the appearance or manifestation of the real — in the Biblical sense, the… Read More
Okay, so Christmas is over, some of us are already starting to put away decorations, and the New Year is at hand. Thank goodness. I don’t know about you, but this third year of our national nightmare has about done me in: 2020 was a… Read More
the narrative thread 