Topic · 33 posts
It takes a dream: recovering lost dreams and living them.
Why miss an extra hour of sleep to get up and walk, even if it’s cold and windy? I think if you ask the walkers who have this level of devotion, they will all say the same thing: “I love it!” Now the “it” may differ among respondents. Some might enjoy the challenge. Others the…
“Let chance and the town take charge of you,” Graham writes. “For the world we travel in is more wonderful than human plans or idle hearts desire.” Graham is describing a strategy for exploring the streets of New York City, which he calls “the zigzag walk.” He starts down an avenue, then takes the first…
“The imagination wishes to be stirred with the romance of places,” writes Graham. He is commenting on a walk he took at age nine with his mother where they observed “romantic and strange sights.” He was walking barefoot along the Lincolnshire sands, which is a stretch of coastline along the North Sea in eastern England.…
“The principal motive of the wander-spirit is curiosity—the desire to know what is beyond the next turning of the woods” (Stephen Graham). I think of curiosity when remembering the walks of my boyhood. In those days my buddies and I followed few marked trails, and most of our hikes began with curiosity. “Is that a…
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According to Graham, when you make walking an art, “you get into an air that is refreshing and free. You liberate yourself from the tacit assumptions of your everyday life.” I’m guessing it is not an accident that most artists are libertarians (and I’m not talking about politics). I mean artists tend to be free…
Stephen Graham called it “The Gentle Art of Tramping.” “It is a gentle art; know how to tramp and you know how to live.” I am intrigued by the idea of walking as art and the walker as an artist. When I view great works of art, be they paintings or symphonies or novels, I…
When Kay Kuykendall Rosenmarkle was in her early teens, she had to quit the school basketball team because her mother couldn’t make the daily round-trip drives from their rural home to practices in town. Now, at 76, Kay has resurrected her dream, playing weekly games with the Chapel Hill, North Carolina affiliate of the National…
So innocent civilians are losing their lives in Ukraine, the world seems on the brink of war and I’ve written a book called 1001 Fun Things To Do in Retirement. Bad timing, huh? Maybe. Or maybe not. Less than a week ago, with Russian forces advancing on the capital from several directions, the Kyiv Classic…
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The new book is called 1001 Fun Things To Do in Retirement. So why write a book like this? Don’t we just intuitively know the fun things to do in life? My answer is that most of us once did. Dr. Stuart Brown in his 2010 book on play said this: “As children, we don’t…
What if your dream is blocked because of circumstances beyond your control? That’s the theme of “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” a recently released movie starring Cate Blanchette. Bernadette (Blanchette) is a once successful architect who has spent the last 20 years in a psychological tailspin because one of her masterpieces was destroyed. The tragedy caused…
“You can travel in Europe for the same amount, or even cheaper, than in the U.S.” So say Jerry and Nonette (Non) Robinson, a retired Canyon couple who have learned to do Europe on a budget. Both former teachers (Jerry was also a coach), the Robinsons’ fascination with Europe began in the late 80s when…
What am I working on? What should I be working on? What do I want to be working on? The questions from Ryder Carroll, creator of the Bullet Journal Notebook, got me thinking. So I took a few minutes and made a list. My answers to questions A & B were remarkably alike. It seems…
“Creativity, like play, can turn an old person into a young person,” wrote Dr. George Vaillant. In his book Aging Well, this practicing psychiatrist and professor at Harvard Medical School went on to define creativity as “putting something into the world that was not there before.” I like that. Makes me think of gardeners or writers…
Finally got out to see Amarillo’s Sod Poodles, our new AA minor league baseball team. We lost, but the team has some big bats (sadly, all the home runs came with no base runners). And they have a kid from Mexico who consistently throws 100 mph fast balls (his control needs some consistency, too). I…
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According to Geoff Godbey, a sociology professor at Pennsylvania State University, “At the end of your life, what you’ve done with your leisure may be more important than what you’ve done at work.” To that end, researchers have written entire books on the subject (Stella Rheingold’s “101 Fun Things To Do in Retirement”); others (Dorothy…
Kinder’s questions (I hope you did the exercise yourself) are designed to find out the core values and dreams of his clients, which he sees as the first step in helping them come up with a financial plan. My responses told me two things. First, if had unlimited money (question #1), I would still do…
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Financial planner George Kinder (“Life Planning for You: How to Design & Deliver the Life of Your Dreams”) has his clients answer the following three questions (I’ve paraphrased for brevity): 1. If you had all the money you wanted—for now and in the future—how would you live your life? 2. If you had only 5-10…
Just finished reading a Washington Post article on creativity and aging. Seems there is a controversy on whether the latter affects the former. Yes, say the scientists. Brain function declines with age and creativity is one such function. No, say the artists, pointing to Michelangelo who did some of his best work in his 70s,…
Did two things yesterday that aren’t normal for me. First, I got up at 7:30 a.m., which is over an hour later than normal—because I’ve been waking with the sun and this morning was overcast. And, two, last night, we went to dinner with friends, then lingered for an hour or two, just visiting. What’s…
It’s why the nine-year-old me coaxed my buddy Jon to follow the train tracks south of Canyon—for 10 miles. Lucky for us, when they appeared at her farmhouse, Aunt Renna Beth took pity on two, tired, thirsty, little boys. And it’s why the 12-year-old me organized an overnight trail ride with junior high friends to…
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But desire fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12). Wise King Solomon’s words are as profound as they are simple. When we put off dreams (by choice or not), we get, well, heartsick. And dreams coming true are the stuff of fairy tales. Seems simple enough, but, when…
Zimbardo and Boyd say you can look for happiness in the past or future, but you “experience happiness only in the present.” Their research shows that adults who live with a present time perspective are more playful and impulsive, are given to excitement and novelty and are spontaneous. They make friends easily and frequently, and…
“Your old men will dream dreams,” writes the prophet Joel. Of course, dreaming is not only for the old. Children dream—I dreamed of riding a horse across my own Texas ranch. Adolescents dream—of a cute girl or handsome guy. My college students dreamed—of the successful life that would come as a result of their academic…
Trim carpenters finished yesterday. They worked Saturday and on the 4th. Suppose it had anything to do with those double-fudge brownies Charlotte baked them? Amazing what happens toward the end of a building project. Little things (like window sills and baseboards) make all the difference. Suddenly, the murky dreams of design and long hours of…
“A chief source of happiness for retirees,” writes Ernie Zelinski, “is an artistic pursuit.” So I looked it up. Merriam-Webster defines art as “something that is created with imagination and skill that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas.” For examples, the online dictionary lists paintings, sculptures and drawings. I’m in big trouble. My college…
Routine—I’ve had one all of my adult life. As a camp director, I knew breakfast was at 8:30, activities began at 10:00 and campfire happened at 9:00—every night. My college classes began at 7:30, lunch at 11:30 (12:00 noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays), then a nap, grading most of the afternoon, class at 6:00 p.m.…
Part of the famous Alpine loop between Lake City and Silverton, Engineer Pass is one of Colorado’s highest and most dangerous mountain passes. At 12,800 feet it is accessible only in a 4-wheel-drive vehicle and then not when snow-packed or extremely wet. Which it was a few years ago when Charlotte and I tackled it…
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I felt alone, anxious and a little hopeful. It was 1995, and I was preparing for a new career by attending grad school at Texas Tech. I can still remember my first walk across campus. Did I belong there? Could I succeed as a Ph.D. student? Or was I making a horrible mistake? Maybe I…
A reporter asked me what advice I wanted to leave my students, and I thought about a speech I gave to the 2010 graduates of Canyon High School. Based on the biblical story of Joseph, I titled it “What Graduation Speakers Don’t Tell You.” You can read the whole thing here, or I’ll give you…
It was this time of year, 17 years ago. I sat in a small room on the second floor of the CUB at a table filled with members of Amarillo College’s English Department. Most of them have long since left or retired: Hodges, Huber, McGinnis, Knight, Zimmermann, Ford and Woodyard (only Dodson and Netherton remain).…
Not because of the things I’m doing now—but because of the things I’m not doing— It’s why I’ve decided to retire. Yesterday, Charlotte and I called old friends we haven’t seen in 20 years. There were stories, familiar laughs and a few tears. 20 years! Which is about as long as I’ve been teaching college…
Cooked out last night. Chicken breasts. Very good; thank you. Has taken me most of 30 years to perfect the chicken breast. Secret is in the tenderizing. That and the brand of chicken: Pilgrim’s Pride. “Hi, I’m Bo Pilgrim, and I just won’t sell a fat, yeller chicken.” Grilling out, as in “outdoors,” whether one…
Today is my debut on the harmonica. Last time I played a musical instrument for an audience was in 1968 when our folk group, The New Creation, sang a number for KVII TV’s noon farm and ranch show with Bedford Forest. I played the guitar, knowing all of five or six chords, which was a…