Dec 6, 2020Got Leaders?One of the routes I walk through my neighborhood takes me past a large pigeons’ roost. The pigeons and I have an agreement of sorts: I will walk slowly so as not to scare them as they pick at whatever they’re picking at on the ground. …3 min read
Jul 16, 2019What Apollo Really Taught UsAnd it’s not just that we can do anything we put our minds to. You’ve undoubtedly witnessed the plethora of books, articles, movies, interviews, and TV programming in the recent weeks, all attempting to acknowledge and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. Most treatments of the Apollo…Space9 min read
Apr 16, 2019Performance management is still swinging and missingThree ways to improve the dreaded annual event. Let me start by noting that I am not a huge fan of baseball. The game is played too slowly. The players make too much money. And attending a game in person is too expensive. Plus, I spent too many years growing…Performance Reviews7 min read
Published in Journal of Journeys·Mar 23, 2019Gravity and Orbital MechanicsThe human kind — Fifty years ago last December, the Apollo 8 spacecraft was nearing its rendezvous with history. For the first time, humans would leave one heavenly body, the Earth, and travel to another, the Moon. Helping to signal that event was a phenomenon that would never make the evening news or flash…Space6 min read
Published in Journal of Journeys·Feb 13, 2019Departures“Where do you want to go today?” - from a Microsoft ad campaign — There is that iconic moment in the film Forrest Gump, when Forrest stops running after three years, two months, 16 days, and 16 hours and reflects, “Mama always said ‘Put the past behind you before you can move on.’ ” It was time for Forrest to stop. …World War II6 min read
Published in Journal of Journeys·Feb 5, 2019Casting with comradesDiscovering the real reason I fly fish. — My fly line starts to unfurl as it should: a tight, straight loop running in front of me with the fly quickly catching up to the end of the line. “Put it right in front of the wall,” my guide had whispered only moments before. “The big browns sit there…Mindfulness7 min read
Dec 27, 2018The Old Man and the SeeNo, that’s not a typo. There I was, sitting on the couch with my wife, watching the end of “A River Runs Through It,” when it happened. Like it always happens at the end of that movie.Short Story5 min read
Dec 4, 2018What objects would you share to tell your story?OK, now limit yourself to five and see what emerges. — Recently while waiting out a long connecting flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, I settled into the nonfiction section at Barbara’s Bookstore. I think the book saw me before I saw it because as I was about to walk toward fiction, I heard a whisper, “Look here.” …Space10 min read
Oct 31, 2018Member-onlyHere we are. Still.“The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.” — William Faulkner — A seemingly endless war on foreign soil Political upheaval and extreme partisan division Protests by athletes during the playing of the National Anthem Racial, ethnic, and gender inequality and strife Demonstrations in the streets Conflict with Russia As U.S. News and World Reports concluded, those events and others signaled that…Space11 min read
Aug 28, 2018Member-onlyDo we really all start at zero?Gifted? Practiced? Or something else? Why I probably won’t get better at fly fishing anytime soon. “If I were a fish, I’d hide there,” I thought, as I surveyed a small island some twenty to twenty-five feet off to my left. There, in the island’s shadow, I could safely park…Fishing10 min read
