(Excerpted from my book, The Long Pivot Home: Based on a true story of love and loss in Oklahoma.) For five years, from 1995-2000, I had been trying to complete a giant pivot in my life, charting a new course away from the loss of my beloved wife Selena, then away from my experience in… Read More

A self-prescribed book helped complete my recovery from self-anger, along with the help of a very good psychotherapist. Read More

Wondering where those demons of the night are coming from? Check your pill box. Read More

Growing up, we learned a lot from TV, but we also just had a lot of kid fun with locally produced shows. Read More

Sometimes the fences that need mending exist right within the family. Read More

Sometimes a guy just needs his big sister (although he doesn't always want her to know it!) Read More

We get reminders about hanging onto the past from ballads as well as memoirs. Read More

Among the many heroes who emerged from the ashes of the Oklahoma City bombing in April, 1995, were three Golden Retrievers from Miami, Florida, with the unlikely names of Aspen, Maggie, and Brandee. The dogs all belonged to the Metro Dade County Fire Department and were also a part of the FEMA Task Force 1… Read More

Peanuts came in two varieties as a kid: one to munch on at the circus, and the other to devour in the comic strip by Charles Schulz. I liked the latter better. Read More

When Evelyn, an outfielder for the Rockford Peaches women’s baseball team, misses a throw to the cutoff player, manager Jimmy Dugan unloads on her in a string of very vocal invectives. Screaming, “Who’s team are you playing for?!” he reduces the young woman to tears. Evelyn’s reaction leaves a stunned Jimmy bellowing, “Are you crying?!”… Read More