There seems to be a directly proportional (or close) relationship between pain and learning. Or at least challenge and growth. Our muscles exist as a metaphor for the way we are supposed to advance ourselves. With the tearing of new…
Category: But the Past Isn’t Done with Us
From You to Me
I don’t know why I’m afraid to fly back to my home where I know I’ll be all right I never could quite say how you made me feel the way you always did but kid, I’d never treat you…
The UMBC Redemption
The 2002 American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) National Championship at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) was one of the great highs and lows of my life. It marked the culmination of my competitive debate career and a turning…
Happy? Thanksgiving!
It’s my first Thanksgiving in Philadelphia since 1998, wherein I stayed with my friend Kate and I met her rollicking family and quotations for the ages were first coined. I’m friends with Kate again, after a bit of a hiatus,…
Handwriting Analysis (or: the Role of Coincidence?)
It’s been a rough couple days in the northeast. People say things like that which they have no business saying. Most people in the northeast have probably been doing just fine. There’s preparations for what appears to be the northeast’s…
Yellow Rain
Something transpired today, forging just the right mix of wind and rain and airborne upheaval to bring every remaining leaf off the trees in Highland Park. Not really every leaf, of course, for a quick examination of the trunked masses…
Thank You, Mr. Niehaus
Dave Niehaus died last night at the age of 75. Most of you probably don’t even know who he is, but the picture above might give you a running start. He was the man who single-handedly (or voicedly) convinced me…
Long Overdue
I meant to post about this article when it came out. That was in April 2008. Which was a while ago. Even longer ago in feeling than it is in calendar months. I try to get a sense of it…
Vulnerability
One of the driving fears of having a website like this is that it paints a huge target on my back. Really, on my front. It reminds me of the old “frontstabbing” technique that Schneider & Gris used to use…
Silence is Rotten
So, I’m not sure my whole volunteering plan is going to work out that well. Debate works as a distraction from my vast emotional pain for two reasons. For one, it is a reaffirmation that I have some modicum of…