WARNING!! Don’t read this if you are no older than 17, or maybe 40 I am not a fatalist, and I am not trying to be maudlin, and I still view myself as hip and youthful, but when the clock ticked past my 63rd birthday last December, I began considering…

The eulogy I would have delivered for my mother-in-law but for COVID How does one encapsulate and summarize any life in a few words, particularly the life of a force of nature like Jo Falcone? The truth is, you can’t. All you can do is try to paint a picture…

IT’S TIME WE LISTENED AND LEARNED FROM THE CHILDREN They don’t want to die in school By the time I attended high school in the 1970’s the Viet Nam War was over, and with it the draft. I had no fear of dying in some far-off rice paddy. In no…

IT STARTED WITH A SUITCASE Rekindling Love During a Pandemic For the first time since the pandemic gripped the world in 2020, I took the commuter train into Manhattan on Wednesday to have lunch with my longtime business partner and friend. I was excited as I boarded the train in…

9/11; Some Thoughts on What the Legacy Might Have Been It’s hard to believe that it has been 20 years since that fateful day of September 11, 2001, yet the memories are as vivid and intact as if it was yesterday. Like most folks of at least a certain age…

Reflections on skin color and talking to kids. One evening when my daughter Nicole was four years old, we were sitting at the dinner table and she asked me a very important question, “hey Dad, why is Michael’s skin brown?” I realized at once this was a very critical teachable…

PROTECTING AND ACKNOWLEDGING EVERYONE’S UNALIENABLE RIGHTS Every July 4th “We” as Americans, regardless of our gender, shade of skin, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or length of time since we or our ancestors came to these shores, gather together with friends and family to gorge ourselves on copious amounts of hamburgers…

DON’T GET TERMINAL ADULTHOOD Ally Sheedy’s character in “The Breakfast Club” says this memorable line, “when you grow up, your heart dies”. I often ponder about that. Is it because of the experiences we accumulate, having to pay bills, working at jobs we don’t like, tragedies we experience over time…

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT GEORGE FLOYD AND THE VERDICT Just trying to be a better human All every human being wants, and is entitled to from birth, is to be treated like a human being. This is the basis of the rights and privileges embedded in the language and spirit of…