The Mentors and Me...
An Old Man and his Grandson by Ghirlandaio
The following is an index page of articles about some of the mentors and their effects on me. Some of the
mentors knew that they were helping me to understand some issue and others had no idea that I was learning from
them by way of their lifestyles. Some of my mentors are no longer with us, but their guidance lives on within
me.
Excluding my parents and family, my mentors started with Brooks Oakford. They continued with Louie Palmer, Teddy Roosevelt, George Bernard Shaw, Bob Woodward, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Bobby Kennedy, T. E. Lawrence, Neil Diamond, Dylan Thomas, Jean Valjean, Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Gilgamesh, Steve Biko, Don Quixote, Andrea Bocelli, Christopher Hitchens, William Forrester, Anne Perry, Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, Aung San Suu Kyi, James Earl Jones, Randy Pausch, Ibn Battuta, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Weissmann, Bo Bo Gyi, Eugene Goodman, Michael McFaul, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The following article is a historically and chronologically accurate composite of the mentors I have had in my
life.
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What I Learned Being Mentored
An Old Man and His Grandson
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09/01/13
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The following is an index of some of the
articles that I have written
about these mentors and their effect upon me.
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A Saint and a Sinner
Michelle Obama and Lev Parnas
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10/30/24 |
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What I Admire about Kamala
And How She Will Change America
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10/25/24 |
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Another Eureka Moment
Thank You, Nancy
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09/30/24 |
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Following in the Footsteps of Lt. Zogg
It’s All About Being Determined
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09/25/24 |
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Another Parallel
With James Earl Jones and Me
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09/18/24 |
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Discovering a Mentor
In a Field of Dreams
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09/13/24 |
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Another Set of Photos
For Ti Ti from PaPa Al
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09/09/24 |
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Becoming a Monkey King
It's More Than Mere Monkey Business
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09/04/24 |
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We Are All Teachers
Be Careful What You Teach
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08/28/24 |
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Become a Bo Bo Gyi
It's About Giving to Get.
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08/26/24 |
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The Snowman vs Allen
How To Change the World
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08/23/24 |
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A Parable about Geese
Waddle or Fly
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07/10/24 |
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How to Become Rich
Without Any Much Money
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07/01/24 |
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My Grandmother’s Words
Haunt and Inspire Me
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05/20/24 |
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What I Discovered
When I Wasn’t Looking
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04/08/24 |
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“We Are Made of Star-Stuff,”
But We Don’t Realize It.
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03/27/24 |
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Bo Bo Gyi
And His Advice to His Granddaughter
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02/19/24 |
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Kicking the Can Down the Road, Again
50th Mass Shootings in America This Year
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02/16/24 |
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Snow and Fatty
Are Following in Ti Ti’s Footsteps
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01/19/24 |
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Do You Hear the People Sing...
Who Will Not Be Slaves Again!
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12/22/23 |
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What Would T.E. Lawrence Do
In Gaza and Israel?
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11/29/23 |
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A Future Thanksgiving
Far, Far Away
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11/22/23 |
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The Reason for Being
An Either/Or Situation
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11/03/23 |
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The Ripple Effect
An Either/Or Issue
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11/01/23 |
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Sagan’s Golden Records
On the Horns of a Dilemma
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10/27/23 |
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Breath of Fresh Air
From My Web Administrator
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10/20/23 |
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Lawrence of Arabia...
A Mentor of Mine
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10/11/23 |
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The Importance of Happenstance
For Heavenly Clauses
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09/08/23 |
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Holding Hands with Neal Katyal
What My Teacher Taught Me
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08/21/23 |
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Gosh Josh
You Are So into Your Masculinity
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05/24/23 |
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Heart of Royalty
An Either or Choice
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05/10/23 |
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Find Your Gift
And Gave It Away
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04/21/23 |
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Doubting Thomas
Teaching Gilgamesh to Thomas
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04/19/23 |
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A Suggestion of a Mentor
A Sequel to Picking a Mentor Article
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04/07/23 |
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Picking Mentors
Choose Wisely
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04/05/23 |
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Music Explains Me
Music Drives Me
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03/03/23 |
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Happy Birthday Moh Moh
And Many More
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02/27/23 |
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Jabbering Parrots
What We Can Learn from Churchill and Buffett
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02/22/23 |
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Threading the Needle
To Address Racism
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02/17/23 |
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Learning from Lao Tzu
To Live Life Daringly
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02/13/23 |
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Fatty and Bo Bo Gyi
Addressing Our Nation’s Problems
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02/06/23 |
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What’s It All About Alfie?
From an Eighty-Year Old Alfie
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01/20/23 |
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My Quest for Eldorado
In Three Parts
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01/16/23 |
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The Benefit of Pain
Take Advantage of It
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01/02/23 |
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It’s All About We
An Important Lesson of Life
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12/26/22 |
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Problems are Assets
Seize the Problems
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12/09/22 |
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My Way
Morphing to My Mentoring
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12/02/22 |
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A Picture is Worth a Billion Words
Or Pick Your Mentors Wisely
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11/30/22 |
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My Twilight Hauntings...
About Immortality
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11/25/22 |
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Camelot Revisited
By Looking Again at the Past
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11/07/22 |
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Growing Up Without Transparency
And Finally Discovering It
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10/14/22 |
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Trying Times
Testing Souls
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09/23/22 |
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Picking Mentors
It Will Change Your Life
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09/09/22 |
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Narcissus of the Past
And Narcissus of the Present
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08/19/22 |
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One of My Mantras
Gals Pick Your Mentors Carefully
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07/27/22 |
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A Lesson About Life…
Don’t Fear Death…
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07/24/22 |
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My Place in the Universe
I Don’t Want to be Lost in Space
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07/15/22 |
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Grasping Reality
While My Clock Is Ticking
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04/29/22 |
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Building Castles in the Sky
Pushing the Limits of Possibility
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04/13/22 |
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Heaven and Hell
What’s It All About, Alfie
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04/08/22 |
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Seeing the Future
At Least Three Times
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03/30/22 |
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My Family in Myanmar:
A Sequel to What’s It All About
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03/28/22 |
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Ginger and I
What’s It All About and Why?
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03/21/22 |
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The Helter-Skelter Mindset1
Locally and Globally
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03/09/22 |
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My Personality Quirks…
I Have Several
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02/16/22 |
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My Dream of Diversity
In the Footsteps of Bobby
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02/02/22 |
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Diversity Is the Answer
But What Is the Question?
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01/31/22 |
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“Better To Reign in Hell…
Than Serve in heaven.”
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01/12/22 |
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A Reason for Being…
The Most Important Reason for My Being
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12/31/21 |
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Moh Moh’s Roles in Our Family:
My Daughter and My Mother
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12/06/21 |
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I Love My Family
With Some Caveats
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12/03/21 |
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Archimedes and the Syracusia
It’s All About Dreaming
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12/01/21 |
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Waking Up…
To Getting Old
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11/29/21 |
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“The Moving Finger Writes”
Another Teaching Moment
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11/26/21 |
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It Starts with Education…
And Ends with Reform.
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11/10/21 |
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A New World Order
The World from Campbell’s Perspective
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11/01/21 |
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A New Ripple
And a Purposeful Life
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10/27/21 |
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The Duality of Changing
Times Change, and We Change
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10/22/21 |
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Societal Dreaming
Delayed but Not Dashed
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10/18/21 |
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A Dream Delayed
Or a Dream Dashed
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10/13/21 |
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Revisiting Gilgamesh
A Teaching Moment
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09/17/21 |
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Realizing the New Normal
What’s All About, Alfie?
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08/30/21 |
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Gandhi’s Tribute to Moh Moh
For Her Indomitable Will
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08/11/21 |
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Sir Gawain, the Knight
Doing What a Knight Does
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08/01/21 |
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A Follow-Up to Snow’s Email
Another Teaching Moment
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07/26/21 |
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We Are Cave Men
But What Is Our Purpose in Life?
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07/23/21 |
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Happy Birthday, Snow
Time To Remember
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07/21/21 |
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Write On
Advice from PaPa Al, aka Grandpa
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06/28/21 |
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The Little One,
A Part of My Family
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06/09/21 |
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Ti Ti is Sweet Seventeen
Happy Birthday
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06/02/21 |
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The Haunting Question
Which Sir Launfal Are You? |
04/30/21 |
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He Is My Brother
On This Pale Blue Dot |
04/28/21 |
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A Religious Disconnect
A Human Disconnect |
04/21/21 |
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Learning from Collecting
Written by a Collector of Treasures |
04/16/21 |
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A Survivor’s Guide
For Living in a Post-Trumpian World |
04/09/21 |
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A Trilogy of Choices Either Rewriting History, Editing History, or Reliving History |
03/31/21 |
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I Told You SoPride Goeth Before Destruction |
03/24/21 |
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Meghan, Harry, and ArchieAddress Royal Racism |
03/17/21 |
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We Over Me… Or Me Over We |
03/08/21 |
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A Tale of Two Countries And a Present-Day Theme and Variation of Life |
03/03/21 |
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Stopping in the WoodsWhile Dreaming Dreams |
01/27/21 |
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There are Facts…And There are Fake Facts. |
01/20/21 |
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Purposeful LivesOn Steroids |
01/13/21 |
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A Secret About LifeHow To Be Successful |
12/21/20 |
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The Devil Made Me Do It. A Presidential Duet |
10/09/20 |
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Amazing Grace Or More of the Same Insanity |
10/07/20 |
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This Is an AddendumTi Ti, the Bridge Builder |
09/25/20 |
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From Then to NowWhat a Difference Seven Years Has Made |
09/23/20 |
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Masks Matter…To Some |
09/16/20 |
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Two PoemsBy Two Ladies |
09/14/20 |
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There Is More to Dreaming…Than Just Dreaming |
08/07/20 |
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"Give Me a Place to Stand...And I Will Move the World.” |
07/20/20 |
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It Is All About FamilyAnd Who Makes Up Our Family |
05/20/20 |
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Our Reason for BeingDiscover It |
05/18/20 |
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Regarding Dancing with CoronavirusCampbell’s Five Commandments
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03/25/20 |
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Trump’s NemesisPresident Obama |
03/16/20 |
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I Don’t Like FailingModus Operandi |
03/13/20 |
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Think Before You ActThen Dare Greatly |
03/09/20 |
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The Republican TrinitySessions, Bolton, and Roberts |
01/31/20 |
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A Present-Day ParableWhich Can Be Understood |
01/24/20 |
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My Swan SongAnd My Family’s Swan Song |
01/17/20 |
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Trump and Stalin
Every Pictures Tells a Story
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05/31/19
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Carl Sagan
The World Learned Much from Him
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05/06/19
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Wanderlust
Travel with No Regret
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05/01/19
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I Wander and Wonder
But I Am Not Lost
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04/22/19
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Three Songs Morphed Together
Creating Meaning in Life
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03/22/19
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The Purpose of the Universe
Or My Window on the World
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03/20/19
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Warren Buffett
Don’t Sleep Walk Through Life
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02/22/19
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The Wall Issue
The True Value of a Wall
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01/14/19
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Pa Pa Al’s Grandfatherly Advice
To Ti Ti Who Doesn’t Need It.
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01/11/19
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The Magnificent Seven…
My Dream Team
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12/07/18
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On Making Your Mark
And Leaving It
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10/22/18
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Sexism in Society
Especially in Washington
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10/05/18
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Jack and Owen
Make Bananas Flambé
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06/13/18
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My Follow-Up…
To My Email To Ti Ti
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03/19/18
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The Question Is…
How Will You Be Remembered?
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02/26/18
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What Would You Attempt To Do
If You Knew You Could Not Fail?
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02/21/18
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The Water Horse of Loch Ness
And Our Water Horses of Life
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02/07/18
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Bobby the Runt
Turned into Bobby the Leader
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01/17/18
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My Thoughts about the Meaning of Life
My Perspective from My Twilight Years
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01/05/18
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On Picking Mentors
Pick Carefully
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12/01/17
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What is Kepler Looking For?
Intelligent Life in the Universe
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11/15/17
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The Tattoo of My Pooh and Me
Ginger and Don Quixote
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11/10/17
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When Dreams Aren’t Realized
What Should You Do?
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09/01/17
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Akhenaten...
My Mentor
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08/25/17
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Get Educated—
Travel
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08/23/17
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Essay with No Words
But Look At My Eyes
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08/21/17
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Me and My Shrink
Dealing With What Drives Me
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08/16/17
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Ti Ti and I
A Most Haunting Relationship
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08/04/17
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What Did I Learn...
From Vinegar Joe
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07/05/17
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Frobisher’s Quests
The Northwest Passage and Gold
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05/31/17
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HMS Terror, HMS Erebus, Global Warming…
Or Nonsense from Those Godless Chinese Communists
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05/26/17
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To Become…
What You Might Have Been
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04/28/17
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Getting It Together…
An Avenue to Acquiring Dreams
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04/26/17
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The Meaning of Life
It Is All About Fighting the Good Fight for Others
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04/19/17
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Life Is a Bowl of Cherries
Or the Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men
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04/14/17
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The Efforts of the Lady
vs. The Efforts of Donald the Dumb
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04/12/17
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Chick Magnet
And the Hauntings
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03/31/17
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Shrimp Can Whistle
"I dream things that never were and say, why not."
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03/08/17
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Invictus
Thank You, Mrs. Davis
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03/06/17
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Robert the Bruce
I'll Drink to Him!
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02/17/17
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I'm Hanging My Lantern
For All To See
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12/23/16
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Mentor Tell You Something About You
The Value of Post-it Notes
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12/09/16
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Moh Moh's Email
Big Dreams Never Run Smooth
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12/02/16
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The Lady, Bobby, and Bagan
Triangulation Process
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11/14/16
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Jack and Owen, the Artists
Determined Artists
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11/11/16
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On the Road Again...
Like a Gypsy
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11/07/16
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What a Difference a Few Years Makes
If You Are Joisting with Windmills
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10/10/16
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Moh Moh Spoke
And She Sounded Like Don Quixote
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09/09/16
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Return to Myanmar
Dream Big
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09/02/16
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Rediscovering the Past...
Eleanor Roosevelt
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08/31/16
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The Meaning Behind the Man
The Man of La Mancha
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08/29/16
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Trying and Failing...
Is Better than Failing without Trying
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08/26/16
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Listening to My Mentors
And Dreaming Impossible Dreams
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08/19/16
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The Terrorism Trifecta
Three More Dances with Death
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08/12/16
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Bobby Kennedy
Still Reaches Out to Us.
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07/29/16
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My Love Letters
They Must Be Written
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07/22/16
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We Shall Overcome
A Belief Amid Darkness
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07/18/16
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Prediction of Clinton's Running Mate
And Her Running Mate Is....
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07/08/16
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"I Come in a World of Iron...
To Make a World of Gold."
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06/27/16
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My Sherpa Statue Spoke
A Valuable Time Spent Listening
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06/17/16
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The Angel Spoke...
And I Listened.
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06/10/16
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Mr. Turner
The Dualism of Feelings
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05/06/16
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An Anniversary Has Arrived....
The Fifth Anniversary.
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05/02/16
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Rewriting History
To Fit Our Notions
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04/22/16
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I am Don Quixote
But I Am Not from La Mancha
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04/15/16
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Christopher Reeve
Another Dancer Who Could Also Fly
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04/08/16
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Worthless Windmills
Time Will Tell Their Worth
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04/01/16
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Bobby or the Donald
Picking Mentors
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03/14/16
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Could I Have This Dance...
For the Rest of My Life?
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03/11/16
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Alex Failed...
But Danced On.
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03/09/16
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What Drives Me?
And the Answer Is....
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03/07/16
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Two Roads in the Wood
Choose Wisely
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02/26/16
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The Art of Beating the Grim Reaper
Follow Randy Pausch's Example
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02/24/16
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Best of Times, Worst of Times
It Is Your Choice; Choose Wisely
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02/19/16
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Buddha's Strange Parable...
Which We Need to Understand
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02/15/16
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The Value of Dreaming
About My List of Dulcineas
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02/12/16
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The Third Dance...
Maybe or Maybe Not
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02/08/16
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The Drinkable Book
I Wish I Had One While in Indochina
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02/03/16
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Revitalizing My Brain
After Winding Up in ICU
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01/25/16
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Dreams will come to you....
If You Are True to Your Quest
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01/22/16
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Miguel Cervantes
As Don Quixote
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01/18/16
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"I'm Dying, and I'm Having Fun."
Randy Pausch is Correct
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01/15/16
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The Gift of an Angel
It is More About My Feelings
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01/06/16
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New Year
New Booty
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01/01/16
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I Know Who I Am...
And Have Found Two People Who Understand Me
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12/04/15
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Träumerei
The Dreaming of Schumann and Me
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12/02/15
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Devils Tower...
Another Misnamed Parable
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11/30/15
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Pandora Provides Hope...
Don Quixote Provides Determination
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11/09/15
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Don Quixote
Then and Now
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11/04/15
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Daring Greatly
Or How Failure Frees Us to Succeed
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10/30/15
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Doubling Down...
To Make Dreams Come True
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10/19/15
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It's Confession Time...
And It Isn't Sunday
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10/09/15
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Collecting Coins
A Tradition Continues
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09/28/15
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A Second Look at Life
Toward the End of Life
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09/07/15
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Agnes Majors in the Minors
A Big Fish in a Drying Up Small Pond
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09/04/15
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The Value of Pain
Or How to Retrieve the Torpedo
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08/21/15
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Dinner with GiGi
The Socratic Method of an Older Woman
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07/17/15
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Dancing with Death
Allows You to Live
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05/22/15
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It Is About How You Lead Your Life
Start With Refining Words
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05/11/15
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"We Get Old Too Soon...
And Wise Too Late"
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04/27/15
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Ode to Joy
In the Midst of Pain
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03/27/15
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Think about the Legacy that You Leave
Will Your Relatives Be Proud of You?
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03/19/15
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The Lioness Roars...
"Enough Is Enough"
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02/20/15
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Obama's Golden Opportunity
On Leaving a Legacy
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02/13/15
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Looking Back and Remembering
Looking Forward and Hoping
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01/20/15
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Suffering Yields Success
Worrying Yields Warts
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01/14/14
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A Hand Is Put Into Theirs...
And the Hand May Be a Little Child's
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12/29/14
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Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream
The Disconnect Between Dreaming and Reality
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12/26/14
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Serendipity...
Finding Without Looking
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12/12/14
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Joe Hill Died November 19, 1915
"I Never Died," Says He.
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11/19/14
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Seeing When You Think You See...
The Difference is Dazzling.
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10/31/14
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A Lesson of Life from Alexander the Great
"Each moment free from fear makes a man immortal."
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10/17/14
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My Dots in Life Get Connected
With the Singing of Pete Seeger
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10/06/14
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Nothing is Secure
Which is a Great Blessing
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10/03/14
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Christopher Robin is Correct...
However, You Must Believe It Before It Is.
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09/29/14
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Wolverton Mountain
The Place Where Dreams Occur
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09/26/14
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Pushing Oneself...
What I Learned from T. S. Eliot
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09/14/14
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It is in Giving that We Get...
Especially in Restaurants in Valparaiso.
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09/05/14
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Darkest Before Dawn
A Logical Disconnect that Is True
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08/15/14
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First, It Was a Car and then Women
Jack and the Learning Curve to Adulthood
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07/21/14
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Old Men Should Plant Trees...
And They Should Be Planted Now.
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06/16/14
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Connecting the Dots With Jack and Owen
Teaching Them To Be Steve Jobs-esque
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06/14/14
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Leaving a Legacy...
A Concern of a 71-Year Old.
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05/18/14
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The Cosmic Calendar
...and Our Importance on the Pale Blue Dot
|
05/15/14
|
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I See More Clearly...
Thanks to Carl Sagan.
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03/24/14
|
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The Blessing and the Curse of the Internet
...Everyone Will Have a Saved Memory
|
02/20/14
|
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The Value of Dreaming
Instructions from My Cardiologist...
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02/14/14
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Never Too Old to Learn
My Techy Computer Confession...
|
02/01/14
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I Have Seen the Light...
Thanks to Myanmar and Dr. Marchand
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01/28/14
|
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A Tribute to the Lady
Myanmar and the World Will Be Better Because of Her.
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01/14/14
|
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Obama's Place in History
Learning from Accomplishments
|
11/09/13
|
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Lawrence of Arabia
A Mentor of Mine
|
10/18/13
|
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Forrester and I in Our Winters
Seasons Change Young Man...
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09/10/13
|
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What I Learned on My Second Trip to Rosslyn
It is a Question of Whether to Be Better or Bitter...
|
08/08/13
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Don Quixote Rides Again...
Or Looking Down the Hallway
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08/04/13
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Philosophy Can Change Your Lives
Or Thinking About Walking in Another's Shoes
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07/23/13
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We are All Greeks
...Receiving and Responding
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03/05/13
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A Lesson About Life
What I Finally Learned When Turning 70
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01/28/13
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The Egyptians and the Republicans
...A Learning from the Past
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01/16/13
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The Fighting TÉMÉRaire
Growing Old and Understanding Art
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12/15/12
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Bonhoeffer—Crossing the Line...
Thank You: Dietrich, Bobby and Barack
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11/20/12
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No Pain, No Gain...
Learning to Jump to Success
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09/09/12
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Correcting Churchill...
The Value of Viewing Life
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08/28/12
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On the Road to Mandalay
...A Road Less Traveled
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08/20/12
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A Special Gift
A Signed One Dollar Bill
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07/07/11
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My Friend Harry
Talk to Me Next
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06/01/11
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Odysseus is My Middle Name
My Similarities with Ancient Mariners
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04/25/11
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I'm Not Liberal Enough
And Neither is America Just Say No to the Just Say No Group
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12/01/10
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Bobby and Barack
Election of Barack Obama
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09/28/08
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Believing in a Dream...Again
Maybe Chris Matthews of Hardball was Wrong This Election Cycle
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12/11/07
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Biko
A Man Who Died for an Idea that Didn't Die
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09/12/07
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Freedom of the Mind
The Contributions of Stephen Biko
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08/03/06
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