I’ve spent most of my life trying to figure out people. After teaching school, running hospitals, serving on boards, and watching our kids and six grandchildren grow up, you’d think I’d qualify for another degree. Surely, the continuing education credits alone would cover it. Recently, ...
Several years ago, I became an apostle of Dan Buettner, the man who made the Blue Zones famous. Buettner traveled to places like Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; Loma Linda, California; Okinawa, Japan; and Sardinia, Italy, where many people reportedly lived to be 100 or more. He studied ...
The other day, I remembered teaching the phrase “Phant, phant, el-e-phant” as a rhythm-teaching phrase to my beginning music students. 1 — 2 — 3 – and 4. Phant = quarter note. Phant = quarter note. El-e = two eighth notes. Phant = quarter note. And it got me thinking about those ...
There was a time when defeating a disease was good news. "Wipe out polio." "Stop smallpox." Neither of those diseases were part of any cultural agenda. We knew that kids were getting sick and dying, and if science could prevent it, that seemed like a good idea. Vaccines have saved millions of ...
In 1970, I was recruited to teach at a junior high school in Johnstown. Although the 1970s would mark the beginning of the American steel industry's decline, Johnstown was still a happening place. There were jobs, families, and lots of kids in the city schools. My bands and orchestras ...
Today, I bought a new tablet, and even though that may not seem too significant to the rest of you, it was to me. No, it wasn't a computer tablet. It was just a little tablet made of white, unlined paper with a gray cardboard back. When I was a good little kid, my dad would stop at Murphy's ...
