February 15, 2025: 3.5 months left

My goal of posting something worthwhile every day was disrupted by illness and a trip. I have recalibrated and caught up yesterday.

I am preparing for a podcast taping this morning that I am a little nervous about. Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting the TN Aquarium after many years. I went with my daughter-in-law and granddaughter. She said "Oh" and pointed a lot, meaning she was interacting with it and creating lots of neural pathways. It was great fun. Also, saying "daughter" is even more fun.

The Franklin Covey Planner quote for the day is profound, even if the source is considered a turncoat in the Fundamentalist world. Harry Emerson Fosdick said, Don't simply retire from something, have something to retire to. In 3.5 months, this will happen to me.

I am making sure that happens. I am retiring to family, ministry, and art. I am retiring from headaches, drama, bureaucracy, and the tedious grading of teaching. I will still get to do all the things I enjoyed about teaching.

I devoted too much of my life to a career. What is left is God's, my children's, and writing. I don't say "community" or "relationships" although those is part of all three.

A friend told me about one of her acquaintances who just decides every day what she will do in retirement. That is not my way of life. But I am perfectly capable of walking away from a place or situation. I have done it many times.

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January 26, 2025: Joseph Campbell's view of things

A colleague sent me this quote the other day. He said that it had really helped him through life and as he faced changes and retirement, and it also helped him follow his bliss and find what he really wanted to do. “The problem in middle life, when the body has reached its climax of power and begins to decline, is to identify yourself, not with the body, which is falling away, but with the consciousness of which it is a vehicle. This is something I learned from myths. What am I? Am I the bulb that carries the light? Or am I the light of which the bulb is a vehicle? One of the psychological problems in growing old is the fear of death. People resist the door of death. But this body is a vehicle of consciousness, and if you can identify with the consciousness, you can watch this body go like an old car. There goes the fender, there goes the tire, one thing after another— but it’s predictable. And then, gradually, the whole thing drops off, and consciousness rejoins consciousn...

Why to Read Fiction, Idea #27: Empathy, anyone?

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Thoughtful.....

Corran Addison July 9, 2018 · The best, most cogent and elegantly simple explanation into the inexplicably destructive negotiating processes of the president,by Prof. David Honig of Indiana University. Everybody I know should read this accurate and enlightening piece... “I’m going to get a little wonky and write about Donald Trump and negotiations. For those who don't know, I'm an adjunct professor at Indiana University - Robert H. McKinney School of Law and I teach negotiations. Okay, here goes. Trump, as most of us know, is the credited author of "The Art of the Deal," a book that was actually ghost written by a man named Tony Schwartz, who was given access to Trump and wrote based upon his observations. If you've read The Art of the Deal, or if you've followed Trump lately, you'll know, even if you didn't know the label, that he sees all dealmaking as what we call "distributive bargaining." Distributive bargaining always has a winner a...

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