Lions and Eagles

"I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love." ~ Gandalf (J. R. R. Tolkein ~ The Hobbit There's an old anecdote about a Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. I think it's safe to say many feel that these times are more "interesting" than we might like. Pandemic, economic uncertainty, racial issues, and all of this in an election year no less! What can we do? I would like to suggest kindness. Intentional, radical kindness. Let's be good to each other. Let's take masking, for example. These pieces of cloth have become very contentious. I have friends on either side, and I have advice for both. Masking friends, you will not persuade others to put masks on with humiliation or intentional shaming. You don't make friends with "you just want people to die". But a friend, if you stay kind, just might put on a mask for you, even if they don't wan...

In the spirit of the day, I thought I'd share a few book and movie recommendations. I found these to be very good to read back when my wife and I first started dating. The first one we found by accident in a bookstore, the second two she recommended, and I loved them. I hope you enjoy them.

Dear Friends, I very much enjoyed the Beer Summit on Racial Understanding last week, and I was honored to be able to attend and meet so many wonderful people. I am sorry to say that I will not be able to make tonight’s Second Summit, though my thoughts and prayers will be with you all. I have had a question on my mind to ask. It is a difficult question, and I hope you will give me your thoughts. This comes from a place of having people around me on different sides, in different camps, who regard each other as enemies, even though I believe they could be friends. You see, it looks to me like that there may be actually two things that people may refer to when they say Black Lives Matter. There is a movement, and there is a particular organization that acts in the name of that movement. I am 100% on board with the movement. With the organization, that group that owns BlackLivesMatter.com, I have much agreement, but I don’t want different ideas that we may have to hurt the places where we...

It's been a crazy year, but as always, I still do my own research before voting, and I wouldn't want to let an election go by without sharing my thoughts for anyone interested!  I do have to start with a disclaimer, though I am an officer of a local political party affiliate, these thoughts and opinions are mine and mine alone. I encourage everyone to do their own research and make their own decisions before voting. An informed vote is a powerful vote.

Before I send in my request for a mail-in Ballot for the May 19th primary, I wanted to make a quick breakdown of the ballots, according to which races actually have more than one candidate to look at. I pulled the Qualifying Candidates lists for the election from the Georgia Secretary of State's website. Later on, I'll get into researching the candidates. But, if you have a particular race you know you want to be able to vote in, or if you want to maximize the number of actual options you can look at, this information may be useful. Some of these races will definitely have Independent and/or third party candidates in November, but for May, here are your choices:

Two weeks into Digital Learning Days with our kids. A bit of a learning curve at first, but we are not missing the old routine. I don't have to drag kids out of bed in time for a school bell. Classwork is generally done by noon. Afternoons are a mix of playtime and "practical learning", helping with cooking and cleaning. Don't get me wrong, we really like the teachers our kids ended up with this year. (Not every year has been this good.) But we don't miss the traditional school routine. The thing that holds us back from considering this as a long term choice is the impact on our work situations. More of an issue for my wife than for me, but there's no way I could do this without her. I'm glad we've had this experience. I'm sorry for the circumstances, the fear and uncertainty so many in the world are facing right now. I worry about the businesses and restaurants shutting down, how many will have trouble opening up again? The most dishea...

A good friend sent me an article today that was an interesting read. The crux of the article was that, while Steve Job's genius and willing to be "foolishly" creative contributed to Apple's success, the real credit goes to the government for subsidizing twelve particular technologies that Apple used in their products. This excerpt presents these technologies, and the fact that their development was subsidized by the government, as if to say that they would not have been developed if the government had not been involved. On that basis, the government seems to get all of the credit for Apple's success. But, until someone invents a device to accurately peer into alternate timelines and universes, we can't know for certain how these technologies, or even better, might have been invented on their own. People have been inventing for tens of thousands of years. We're rather good at it. Apple got to be big because their products were good, and their marketing...