Seasonal Thinking

Happy First Day of Fall!  I was able to do a thorough gathering of leaves on Saturday - the first of many to come.  Things should be pretty tidied up by Thanksgiving, I figure.  Even as we slip into this new season, I was able to enjoy the last throes of summer tomatoes, in sandwich form on bread from 7/10 Bread Company with Nueske’s bacon, a little shredded basil from Birds Haven Farm and a dash of balsamic vinegar.  Man do I love that simple food.

The author James Clear was kind enough to speak at the Bryn Du Mansion this past week as a part of Bryn Du’s Life Localspeaking series.  Clear is best known for his New York Times best-selling book, Atomic Habits.  If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it.  The essence of the book centers around how to make building new habits as easy as possible.  Generally this means taking the smallest possible action, rather than piling on a bunch of perfectionist expectations.

For example, if your goal is to become more physically fit, building the habit of going to the gym - even if you don’t have the time or energy to workout.  Just building the attendance habit will eventually lead to more consistent exercise.

Clear’s visit was formatted as a bit of a "fireside chat” with Granville’s answer to Garrison Keller, Jeff Gill.  They had a wonderful back-and-forth, and then Gill did his best Phil Donahue impression (may he rest in peace), by fielding questions from the audience.

Something that Clear spoke of was the notion of “seasons.”  He’s working on a new book, but now has two young children with a third on the way - putting him squarely in the “season of parenting.”  As such, he cannot approach the work of this latest project in the same way he invested in the creation of Atomic Habits.  This isn’t the season for that kind of sacrifice for him.  It doesn’t mean he has to suspend being an author, he just can’t be as productive per unit of time as he was earlier in his career.  This current project will take more time to complete, but complete it he will, and I expect it will be very thoughtful, based on seeing him Tuesday night.

My experience has been that the “season of parenting” has many segments - the needs of a newborn are not those of a toddler, teen, etc.  Careers have seasons, and sometimes they overlap.  In the past 18 months or so, I definitely have entered a new season - one where three separate human beings (two children, one parent) either don’t need me at all, or need me to show up in the world differently than I’ve showed up for them previously.

Clear didn’t say this, but I believe that we should consciously review our habits on a quarterly basis.  Consciously thinking about “Starts” and “Stops” four times a year is a good practice.  By this, I mean:  What should I start doing, and what should I stop doing?  If we really want to add habits to our daily/weekly lives, it often means stopping something else.  Otherwise, where would the time come from?

Today is the first day of a new season.  A good day to reflect on who we need to be as the temperature and the leaves drop, the snow falls, and the holidays approach.

Sunday Supper
This Slow Cooker Asian Braised Beef recipe looks yummy, and pairs well with this recipe for Asian Stir Fried Vegetables.  Add some cooked rice, and you’ve got a nice meal.  These days rather than make a dessert, I am cutting up some watermelon as a light, sweet finish.  If you want to take this idea further, here is a recipe for Watermelon Sorbet.

Sunday Music
This nearly hour-long Jazz House Music Mix is not a bad way to relax on a Sunday.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Pattern Recognition

Still no rain in Central Ohio.  Being spared the task of mowing the grass is somewhat of a relief, but I’d prefer some rain, please.  Not much chance of precipitation in the days ahead, I’m afraid.

Humans’ ability to recognize patterns, pairing these observations with our past experiences gives us the ability to anticipate future events.  Whether it’s avoiding a lion attack in the Serengeti, or identifying a great stock investment, we use our brains to both avoid disaster and capitalize on opportunity.  First-mover advantage is real, but carries the risk of being wrong.  I’m reminded of the phrase “The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.”

This ability often proves itself to be harmful.  Scam artists take advantage of this trait, mimicking certain patterns (be they visual, numerical or verbal) to lure their targets into taking actions that are against their self-interest.  This simple IF/THEN rubric of “If you see pattern X, then you should anticipate outcome Y” has led many of us astray, resulting in large and small damages.

So how do we know when to trust our instinct, and rely on the prediction that a given pattern might suggest?  First, we should recognize the environment in which we are noticing the pattern - how stable is it?  The more stable the environment, the more likely the pattern can be viewed as reliable.  I would argue that most decision-making environments today are far less stable than they once were.  The information overload that social media and light speed communications heaps on us makes decision-making today much more challenging - because inaccurate information flows as freely as accurate info.

Our personal biases skew things further.  When we have a strong preference for a particular outcome, we become vulnerable to confirmation bias.  We start “connecting the dots” whether the dots are there to be connected, or not.  I’ve discussed such biases before, and they are closely related to this human ability to recognize patterns.  With the volume of information that is being generated every minute, there is no shortage of false dots to connect when you really want something to be true.

The COVID pandemic offers a great example of an environment with lots of conflicting information, lots of people who passionately wanted certain things to be true, and lots of decisions that might not have been made under different circumstances.

Our ability to recognize patterns is both a blessing and a curse.  It is probably a good practice to scan the current news environment on a regular basis, actively looking for patterns that may be leading people astray, so that we ourselves can avoid being misled.  I currently view most coverage of electoral integrity with extra scrutiny, and suggest the same for you.  There are lots of people sitting in federal prison right now based on reliance on poor information leading up to and after the 2020 presidential election.  I would hate to see a repeat of this particular pattern.

The sheer volume of information flow is unlikely to slow, and the average quality of information is unlikely to rise any time soon.  It will be our personal ability to focus on higher-quality sources, and recognize our own internal leanings to avoid letting observed patterns from leading us astray.

Sunday Supper
Speaking of pattern recognition, I’ve been writing these weekly essays with recipe recommendations long enough that I absolutely feel repetitive.  Recognizing this, I am making the choice to lean in to the classics rather than always seeking out some novel new approach to food or cooking.  I’m sure some new stuff will catch my eye, but hopefully only when it is worthy of trial.  With this said, it’s really hard to go wrong with a slow-roasted pork shoulder on a Sunday afternoon.  Pairing this with this Kale Salad with Apples and Cheddar would be a wonderful combination.  We’ll save the pumpkin-spices and roasted root vegetables for when the weather truly turns Fall-like.

Sunday Music
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have a new album out, and it is wonderful.  This extended performance and interview of the duo will give you a good sense of just how great it is.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Fitness

Despite the recent smattering of rain, the dryness of the past month+ has spurred the trees to start dropping their leaves earlier and more aggressively than in a typical year.  Leaf collection, plus cooler air temps this weekend have certainly created a Fall-like feeling.  I must confess I’m not quite ready for sweaters and soups, but they are not too far away.

Since starting my journey as an EOS Implementer this past March, the similarities between fitness coaching and entrepreneurial coaching have been really striking to me.  To be fair, I’ve never been a fitness coach - but I have been a regular gym rat since about 2008, when Lori bought me a gift certificate to Granville Fitness for Christmas.  So, I have received plenty of coaching in the gym, and am delivering it now in conference rooms around the city and beyond.

This video on Instagram really resonated with me.  In it, CrossFit founder Greg Glassman speaks a few year ago about the astounding growth of CrossFit, and the health benefits its participants had been experiencing.  Part of what he says is this:  "If I gave you the list of things I know is going to happen, you wouldn't believe it.  And so I don't.  I wait for you to come and tell me, and then I act like I'm surprised." 

I feel the exact same way about EOS and what it is doing for entrepreneurial companies all over the world.  The causes of these positive outcomes are just as similar as the benefits:  To be physically or organizationally fit, it comes down to one’s willingness to commit to a relatively few simple, basic activities repeatedly over time.

Glassman wrote Fitness In 100 Words many years ago now:

“Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar.  Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.  Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, Clean, Squat, Presses, C&J, and Snatch.  Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics:  Pull-ups, Dips, Rope Climb, Push-ups, Sit-ups, Presses to handstand, Pirouettes, Flips, Splits and Holds.  Bike, Row, Run, Swim, etc., Hard & Fast.  Five or Six Days Per Week.  Mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow.  Routine is the enemy.  Keep workouts short and intense.  Regularly learn and play new sports.”

I took a stab at summarizing it’s organizational equivalent:

“Five days each year the leadership team works on the business, not in it. Be clear on your Core Values, Core Focus, and Core Customer.  Know what must be true 10 years from now due to your efforts, translating it into 3-year, 1-year and one quarter measurable outcomes.  Make sure that everyone shares your core values and that they get, want and can do the roles assigned to them.  Review a Scorecard of the 5 to 15 most important measurables each week.   Welcome all issues, and address them with rigor.  Document your key processes so that everyone does them identically.”

In both realms, there is nothing complex or fancy about the path to fitness.  I think that many people can’t bring themselves to believe that it is as simple as it really is.  Or maybe they believe it really is simple - but they just can’t bring themselves to be “on the hook” for pursuing fitness (in either context).  But just because something is simple doesn't make it easy.  We humans are pretty good at getting in our own way.

Pick a goal that means something to you.  Make the stakes exciting and energizing.  This will make it easier to commit to the process achieving it.  

It may not be easy, but it’s probably not as hard as you think.

Sunday Supper
Did I say I wasn’t ready for soup yet?  Disregard that.  This Ham & Bean soup is speaking to me.  This Turkey & Apple Arugula Salad would make a sturdy accompaniment and perhaps help you load the fridge with good fuel to start your week.

Sunday Music
This Sunday I share with you this performance by Lawrence, a brother-sister team surrounded by additional great players.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Unique Adversity

I had the unique privilege of seeing Amanda Knox speak last week.  At the age of 20, Knox found herself in a tragic, surreal set of circumstances that put her life on an entirely different trajectory.  Studying abroad in Italy as a college student, she returned to the apartment she shared with three other women to find one of her roommates dead of an apparent stabbing.  She immediately notified the authorities, but quickly became the primary suspect for the crime.    

She spent almost four years in prison (two years leading up to her first trial, then two more before her conviction was overturned).  It took far too long, but DNA evidence ultimately identified the actual killer, and yielded a definitive acquittal from the Italian Supreme Court Court. 

Four years.  FOUR YEARS.  Taken from you.  Here - sit in this jail cell and reflect on the crime that you did not commit.  Ponder how the heck you are going to prove your innocence.

The media coverage of the case was global in scope and hyper-sensationalistic.  The Italian prosecutor’s theory of the case included a range of untrue, tawdry elements that the media were more than happy to splash everywhere.  So even after winning her freedom, Knox returned to a world that was primed to think a lot of untrue things about her.  Anonymity was not an option.

The grace and equanimity she displayed in her talk was remarkable.  It made me think of Victor Frankl and his book, Man’s Search For Meaning.  Both Frankl and Knox found themselves deprived of their liberty, in trying circumstances (obviously Frankl’s situation being far more dire).  But both emerged from those adversities as better people.  Like Frankl, Knox has something meaningful to share with the world about how, regardless of our circumstances, we always have a choice regarding our response to the events of our lives.  And it is our choices that ultimately define us.

Wrongful incarceration is thankfully a pretty rare occurrence.  But we all endure events - the loss of loved ones, random violence, accidents…plenty of things happen that are beyond our control.  The only power that we have is in the responses we choose when faced with adversity.  We can complain about unfairness, wallow in self-pity.  Or we can own our experience and take action to mitigate the effects of misfortune on our lives.  We may wish we didn’t have to make it, but the choice is always there to be made.

Today Knox and her husband have two children, and she is a prominent advocate for the Innocence Project, which advocates for people who have been wrongly convicted.  Her talk was intense, and uplifting.  No doubt the version of Amanda Knox that I witnessed is a different version of the person she otherwise would have become were it not for her wrongful incarceration.  But I get the sense that she is making the most of the life she has been fortunate to reclaim.

Sunday Supper
This time last week, I was smoking my first brisket in many years.  As such, my expectations were for a good, but not great result.  I surprised myself, though - it was amazing!

This week Lori and I are returning to our empty-nester meal prep routines.  Here are some salads that I’ll be putting together to enjoy this evening, and in the days ahead:

Fatoush

Chopped Buffalo Chicken Cobb Salad

Rosemary Chicken, Caramelized Corn & Peach Salad

Sunday Music
This Sunday I share with you a group I had never heard of until today - here is Pygmy Lush, playing at the NPR Tiny Desk.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Anchors Away

Well, here we are.  The kids are back in school, so now we are working our way back into the more regimented routines of the school year.  Even though our little birdies have flown the coop, we still feel this transition in our household.  Our first born departed this past Wednesday and our second born left just on Friday.  So, the we’ve been putting the house back together in their wake.  This is not a complaint, or even to say that the boys were messy.  It’s just different when four people live here rather than two.  So, we’ve been regrouping a bit.

The week was shortened on both ends - Lori and I returned from a great trip to Montana late Monday after seeing dear friends.  And I snuck up to Cleveland on Friday ostensibly for a doctor’s appointment, but it was by design for me to be “in the neighborhood” so that I could fart around with our younger son before he jumps into the whitewaters of another semester at Case Western.

This entire year has felt like a re-emergence into the world for me.  Post-COVID, post-lots of stuff…with the activities of the last couple of weeks, I feel fully back in the world.  In fact, I may need to pump the brakes a little bit.  My schedule needs a little breathing room.  The week ahead will also be action-packed.  But after Labor Day, I think I can dial things back a notch and stay focused on my highest priorities.  Summer boondoggles, shenanigans and tomfoolery are now officially over for the year.

I saw a cartoon on LinkedIn this past week depicting a boat with its motor revving, but going nowhere because its anchor was snagged on the lake bed. On the motor was the word “goals,” and on the anchor were the words “bad habits.” The caption of the cartoon reads: “It’s doesn’t matter how hard you work if you don’t address what is really holding you back.” (I would share the cartoon here, but lack the technical savvy to figure out how to do this.)

I found it thought-provoking.  No doubt there have been times in my life when I have been super-busy and working very hard, without going very far.  The cartoon served as a good reminder to occasionally press pause, reflect and review to ensure that I don’t have any anchors holding me back from making progress on our goals.

I appreciated the reminder, so now I’m sharing it with you.  Are there any things in your life that could be reduced or eliminated to make room for higher priority activities?  It’s worth a scan.  I hope this little nudge creates a little more efficiency or effectiveness for you as we head into the final third of the year (!).  If nothing else, I need to create some bandwidth for leaf collection.

Sunday Supper
A friend who I don’t get to see very often is coming for Sunday Supper at our house this evening, and specifically requested barbecue.  So I’m lighting my smoker for the first time since Ray Ray’s opened in our fair community.  This is not to say that my brisket is any better than Ray Ray’s, just that when a friend makes such a request, I honor it and put all my love into the process of cooking.

Here are the recipes for the full menu, along with some notes:

Kansas City Brisket (from Mike Mills’ must-have book on barbecue, Peace, Love and Barbecue).

Dr. Pepper BBQ Sauce

Marinated Tomato, Cucumber & Onion Salad (peak summer freshness and flavor)

Sweet Corn Salad with Buttermilk Vinaigrette 

Mike Mills’ Crunchy Cole Slaw (I cut this recipe in half, then add about 1 cups of mayo to make it creamy to offset the bite of the cider vinegar.  I also short the sugar by half.)

For dessert, I’ll be serving fresh-from-the-oven Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies, topped with Jeni’s Milkiest Milk Chocolate ice cream (Vanilla was sold out).

(I don’t expect you to cook all of this, but somewhere in these recipes are some good ideas for tonight.)

Sunday Music
This Sunday I share with you this live performance by Sammy Rae & Friends in Boston right before COVID shut everything down for a while.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

American Values

The U.S. Presidential race has provided lots of drama and distraction this summer, at least for me.  Despite the fact that my vote is pretty much determined, I have found it hard to tune out the reality TV aspect of it all.  Every four years through the votes we cast at the ballot box we essentially “hire” a new president.  Which got me to thinking…

Companies that run on EOS regularly use their core values as a hiring filter.  This is one of the first tests of a job candidate - do they share our core values?  So, what if we assessed the candidates against American Values? And what are they, anyway?  I think it is easy to confuse our personal values with those of our country.  I also think that core values can shift over time if they are not culturally reinforced.

So, I tried to identify values that seem to be intrinsic to our country, and reviewed the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution to do this.  Here are ideas from both of these documents (including constitutional amendments) that strike me as being worthy of consideration as “American Core Values”:

EQUALITY - All of us are created equal.

LIFE - Our society should promote/preserve our mutual safety from harm.

LIBERTY - The ability to move freely throughout the country without having to justify or explain ourselves.

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS - The ability to do whatever pleases us, while not infringing on others’ ability to do the same.

Here are a few others that may qualify as values, but perhaps not:

SEPARATION OF POWERS - Should the creation of three co-equal branches be considered a value?  Perhaps - but maybe the underlying value here is “We want to govern ourselves in such a way that no one has too much power.  We don’t want a king.”

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE - The 1st Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”  Many of the early colonizers of North America were fleeing religious persecution, so this amendment was meant to address concerns about such persecution happening here.  On the flip side, the Establishment Clause prevents the federal government from creating an official national church or favoring one set of religious beliefs over another.  Again, this is somewhat structural, but it feels like there is a value baked into this structural consideration.

Lastly, I would suggest that FAIRNESS is an American value.  Lots of amendments to the constitution point to this - like the right to not incriminate one’s self, the right to not be tried multiple times for the same charge, due process requirements, etc.  If government is going to limit a citizen’s liberty and pursuit of happiness, the process by which this happens needs to be as fair as possible.

Perhaps I’ve overlooked something - let me know if you feel there are any values missing from this framework.

Now comes the fun part - for each candidate, rate them as either Positive, Neutral, or Negative relative to each of these values and see how they rate.  No, I’m not going to show you how I rate the candidates…we can all do this for ourselves.

As individual voters, nothing is stopping us from adding additional values to this framework.  Do so as you see fit.  My intention today is to try to articulate and focus on those values that are intrinsic to America, and offer an objective framework for evaluating the candidates.

We’ll see who America selects as it’s next leader.  I’m sure it will be an interesting Summer and Fall as we sort this out.

Sunday Supper
For Sunday Supper this week, this Thai Beef Salad will take advantage of all the fresh summer produce.  If you want to make your next watermelon a little more interesting, try this Watermelon Salad with Aleppo Pepper.  For a classic summer flavor, this Barbecue Chicken recipe is fantastic.

Sunday Music
This Sunday, I offer the one and only Chucho Valdés on piano at the NPR Tiny Desk.  And how about this live performance of Tour De Force by Dizzy Gillespie with too many other trumpeters to name.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Hey, Joe

It has been more challenging this summer to write my weekly essays.  This has not been a function of writer’s block, but more a function of “sharer’s block.”  The things that have been on my mind have been either too personal, too half-baked or too mundane to share.  

Something happened in the last couple of days that revealed a part of this challenge for what it is.  In an interview hosted by podcaster Lex Fridman, on Thursday Joe Rogan said he preferred Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is running as an independent, for president.  This created an online swell of criticism for Rogan, prompting him to post the following statement to his X (formerly Twitter) account:  “For the record, this isn’t an endorsement.  This is me saying that I like RFKjr as a person, and I really appreciate the way he discusses things with civility and intelligence.  I think we could use more of that in this world.”  He further went on to say “I’m not the guy to get political information from.”  

Politics is one of those areas that has been on my mind, but I’ve been reluctant to write about, and Rogan’s experience of the last few days is exactly why.  It’s a sensitive, polarized environment.

Writing my weekly essay is a way for me to make sense of the world - and to “show my work.”  I think that interviewing guests on his podcast serves a similar purpose for Rogan.  I appreciate this, and was one of his earliest listeners back in 2009.

He’s prolific.  I don’t know how many hours of interviews he has published in total (or even last week), but I simply can’t keep up with them all.  Nor am I interested in hearing the views of all of his guests.  This volume of content activates the law of averages - anyone who speaks with a microphone in front of their face long enough will say things they wish they could revise, or “unsay.”  It’s bound to happen - perhaps even more so with Rogan, who sometimes drinks alcohol or smokes cannabis during interviews.

I respect him more than I actually like him.  It’s not that I dislike him…I just don’t share enough of his views to feel a strong affinity for him personally.  But he’s a creator - he does the hard work of writing and delivering stand-up comedy, he produces hours and hours of interviews for his podcast.  He maintains an open-mindedness that is rare to see in other media personalities.  He exudes a “live and let live” ethos that I think makes the world a better place.

My only beef with him is the way that he handled COVID-19.  Expressing his personal opinions, and platforming discredited scientists who basically debated the proper treatment protocols in real time was irresponsible.  It contributed to confusion and poor decision-making by lots of human beings during a time of high ambiguity.  I won’t hazard as a guess as to how many people this might have affected, but it is a non-trivial number.

On balance, I think Rogan and his podcast are a positive force for greater understanding and acceptance in the world.  He holds plenty of views that I don’t share - but I never get the sense that he’s trying to convince anyone to think the way that he thinks.  That’s quite a needle to thread.

Sunday Supper
It’s that time of year - the time when big entree salads are so satisfying and fresh.  This classic Grilled Chicken Niçoise is perfect.  This Basil & Tomato Fried Rice is an interesting way to deploy all of those fresh tomatoes and basil.  And this Blueberry, Almond and Lemon Cake would make for a great finish.

Sunday Music
This Sunday let’s listen to some dudes with three names.  This concert by Jimmie Dale Gilmore is great.  And this song by Billie Joe Shaver is an anthem I play any time I need some encouragement.  No three-name roster would be complete without the inimitable Stevie Ray Vaughn.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Use It Or Lose It

Last summer if you had told me that I would be walking eighteen holes of golf, carrying my golf bag with any regularity this year, I would have been skeptical.  Somehow plantar fasciitis had manifested in my right foot, with my left foot not far behind.  Every morning the pain and stiffness made me feel like an eighty-year old man, hobbling around, popping Aleve.  It affected my gait to the point that my back (which has always been a little iffy) started flaring up too.

This year is different story - It’s been months since I’ve taken an anti-inflammation drug, and my body feels more resilient.  The way I got here was by simply wrestling with the foot problem, doing whatever I could - even if that was not what I would “normally” be doing.  I was able to continue playing golf by riding in a cart rather than walking 15,000 or so steps.  I stretched my feet, Achilles tendons and calves, multiple times each day.  I kept going to the gym, modifying workouts as necessary to avoid aggravating things. 

Over time, my function returned to something close to what I could call normal.  I maintain a daily stretching routine that I am certain keeps the plantar fasciitis at bay.  I have no doubt that the pain would return if I slacked off on this daily ritual.  I also have no doubt that I would be less functional today if I had chosen rest over active rehab.

Writers must write.  And active people need to stay active.  No doubt my body will disappoint me again in the future.  New aches and pains will appear.  I’ll have to keep stacking up mobility rituals to keep my aging body functioning as I want it to.  I imagine there is probably a swimming pool in my future.  Gentle, less load-bearing, swimming also promotes a good range of motion of our limbs.  Whatever it takes, I will keep moving.

This notion of Use It Or Lose It also applies to mental function.  Reading, working puzzles, keeping a journal, staying engaged with life are essential.  Inactivity is the new smoking.

When adversity presented itself last year, it was hard not to feel as if the pain and stiffness was simply my "new normal."  But it didn’t work out that way.  Recovery is not guaranteed, but it is possible.  Remember that when things are not going your way - your response to unwelcome events can go a long way in turning things around.

Sunday Supper
I cooked this Grilled Pork Bulgogi yesterday, and it was fantastic.  (Be judicious with the Gochujang paste, to avoid over-spicing the marinade.  I used about 60% of what the recipe calls for and it was still pretty zippy.)  This Southwest Salmon Salad is wonderful, too.

Sunday Music
This week for Sunday Music I share with you this wonderful cover of Tom Waits’ Temptation by Diana Krall, and this 30-minute performance by Katie Pruitt on Austin City Limits Radio is really nice.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Cancer Contrarian

Most of my day yesterday was focused on cooking.  A good friend lost his wife to cancer, so I wanted to contribute to the Meal Train supporting him while he grieves.  I figured if I was going to fire up the oven, the grill and the stovetop, I would also bank some good, reheatable food in our refrigerator as well.

I made three pounds of beef and pork meatballs, grilled three pounds of chicken thighs, roasted five pounds of Yukon gold potatoes, four crowns of broccoli, cooked a pound of cheese tortellini and made a sauce with cherry tomatoes, garlic, and those teeny tiny little summer squash, plus fresh basil.  I also made a batch of my favorite rice pudding recipe, with orange zest, vanilla and dried cherries.

As I cooked, I thought of my friend and his sweet wife.  I noted that the food I was making hit every note:  Sweet, Salty, Bitter, Sour, Savory.  Driving home from the grocery store, I saw the signs notifying the community that the Pelotonia charity bike ride would be coming through town next weekend.

I have nothing against Pelotonia, but I have never felt drawn to participate in it.  Structurally, I think it is genius.  It’s a great outlet for so many of us who are affected by the disease.  When I lost my dad to lung cancer in 2008, I started training for my first marathon.  It could have just as easily been a long bike trek.  Long training runs were a way to reflect on my loss, and a vain attempt to outrun the grim reaper by becoming as healthy and robust as possible.  

When stomach cancer took my mom’s life, I still did not feel called to saddle up and join the peloton.  Something about it repels me.  Maybe I’m reluctant to re-engage with grief that I have mostly put behind me.  At least part of my resistance is distrust of distracted drivers who might plow me over during training rides.

So many people that I know ride in the event.  I can’t possibly give each of them a meaningful donation.  Instead, I cook food for my friend, another person suffering the loss of a loved one due to cancer.  We all have our roles to play.

Sunday Supper
These Grilled Chicken Thighs w/ Lime-Basil Butter are a perfect summer recipe.  And this recipe for Salt & Pepper Zucchini is a great use of this prolific ingredient.  With peaches just about to peak, this Fruit Galette recipe would be good to have on hand.

Sunday Music
This hour-long video featuring Sheryl Crow and Jason Isbell in conversation and performance at The Metropolitan Museum of Art is wonderful.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Interesting Times

There is a backhanded curse that has been attributed to Chinese culture, but for which there is no evidence of it coming from the Chinese:  May you live in interesting times.

I think this moment in America’s story will qualify as “interesting” to future historians.

From my perspective, life has been a surreal mix of normal, mundane everyday things with the occasional unbelievable, one-off, never-in-my-life type national events.

Like last weekend – Donald Trump dodged a bullet, but so did America. I am not a supporter of Trump, but cannot see how his assassination would yield anything positive.

All the drama on the political scene, while at the same time I’m in the throes of emptynesterhood where I can set and maintain my own routine in ways I probably never have…these things merge into interestingness.  Some things I don’t want to share.  Personal stuff, family stuff.  We have a lot on our plate right now.  But we’re so fortunate.  We have the bandwidth to take on such challenges as they arise.

But mortality looms, ever closer, hovering more and more in conscious thought. I want to make the most of the days that I have left, but continue to defer certain things into the future on the assumption that I will be robust enough to engage with them then. I see all too often people making these same deferrals, only to run out of time.

So it’s a bit weird. Not good, not bad. Just weird. Each presidential cycle, It feels like America holds its breath a bit. Everyone waits to see how it turns out. People don’t make big ticket purchases, employers don’t hire quite as fast. We’re all in wait-and-see mode.

There are still quite a few things on my to-do list. I’m optimistic that I’ll get to most of them before my time runs out. For now, I’m going to savor this beautiful weather we’re having, go to the farmers market and buy the freshest produce I can get my hands on and cook something good to eat. That’s never a bad idea.

A new television series just dropped on Apple+ right now - Omnivore, produced by and featuring René Redzepi, famed chef of three-Michelin starred restaurant, Noma, in Copenhagen, Denmark.  It offers a deep dive into specific ingredients that I have found compelling.  The first two episodes (the ones I have watched thus far) focus on chile peppers and tuna.  This program is reminiscent of David Attenborough’s Planet Earth, but focused on food.  It is well worth a watch.

Also, we lost one of our greatest comedians this past week.  Bob Newhart died Thursday at the ripe old age of 94.  This brief video he made for his friend Don Rickles’ birthday displays his unique style - and a sharpness he retained late into life.

Sunday Supper
We are entering peak season at the farmer’s market.  I made the most delicious, simplest little caprese salad on Saturday, using produce from Bird's Haven Farms.  There is nothing better.  If you want something more involved, try these Grilled Pork Chops with Dill Pickle Butter.  These Chorizo-Stuffed Zucchini Boats are a great way to start using those larger Zukes that are starting to appear.  This Thai Corn Salad w/ Salted Duck Egg looks very interesting.

Sunday Music
I discovered Paolo Nutini this week.  Check him out.  And the jam band Phish (finally) made its way to the NPR Tiny Desk for a performance.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Kinfolk

As I locked the door to the house Friday afternoon, my mind was reviewing the many tasks I could accomplish if stayed home instead of traveling.  As I often do before going on a long drive, a piece of me fretted about unforeseeable traffic snarls and any other bogeyman that my irrational mind could muster.  Status quo and routine tried to drag me down like quicksand.

But this was on my calendar, and if something makes it onto my calendar it gets done.  So I hit the road.  I’d been to this part of the world so rarely these last few years, I was not 100% certain of the route to the lone road that climbs the mountain where my aunt, uncles, and cousins have lived for as many years as I’ve drawn breath.  I saw enough familiar buildings to know I was getting close.  But it took a quick stop in the parking lot of a Dairy Queen that allowed me to confirm the final leg of the journey with my aunt.

By 7pm I was eating tacos and catching up with my dear aunt Rachel.  Uncle Paul arrived an hour or so later, and we talked past my normal bedtime on all sort of family issues.  I slept hard, waking at sunrise, despite the blackout shades.  My body just knows it’s time to get up…

Rachel prepped a blackberry pie and popped it in the oven, a critical menu item for later in the day.  Then she made breakfast for Paul and me.  Paul and I watched the Scottish Open on TV, then assembled and loaded a new incubator he bought to hatch some fertilized chicken eggs.  Rachel continued prepping lunch.  

By midday, the first batch of cousins and their children arrived, the second batch appeared soon thereafter.  EIGHT glorious young ones, the next generation of the family tree, hugging, running, playing.  Just like I used to do, on this same mountain. 

It was lunchtime.  The stove held a big pot of pinto beans, another with sauerkraut and hot dogs in it, a large cast iron pan of fried potatoes, and another with a proper batch of cornbread.  So simple.  So well-executed.  So many sense memories.

Rachel made up a plate and took it down the road to the birthday boy.  Everybody enjoyed lunch.  The kids went back to playing.  I shuffled down the road to see the birthday boy myself.  He was sitting on his porch.  I know he is my uncle, but when he speaks I hear my grandfather.  I know he is my uncle, but when he speaks I hear my mother.  We talked about his beautiful grandbabies.  We talked about his health.  We talked about all the things different doctors have been telling him.  I told him I loved him.

My cousin put the birthday candles on the blackberry pie, and we sang Happy Birthday to her daddy.  The pie was heaven.  The kids went back outside to play.  I watched the Orioles/Yankees game, basking in the afterglow of the perfect Mountain Meal.  Rachel took the grandbabies for a ride in the 4x4.

When she returned, I said my goodbyes and hit the road for home.  I drove down the mountain with the windows down, breathing in the air.  I smelled sweet scents, and I smelled something foul.  It was all beautiful.  I saw perhaps three cars before I got close to the highway.

Mom’s gone, but her family is there, where they’ve always been.  And I’m a part of it.  How glorious that is.

Sunday Supper
This Sunday I won’t have as much time to prep food, so I might make just a big batch of this Bolognese Sauce to pair with some pasta or chopped, roasted cauliflower for my gluten-free gal.  Or, I may grill up a bunch of these Spicy Lamb Burgers w/ Tahini.  This Zucchini Salad w/ Basil, Mint, and Feta looks good.  So does this Corn Salad with Tomatoes, Feta and Mint.

Sunday Music
Check out this group I recently discovered from Lincoln, Nebraska - The Wildwoods, singing their song, West Virginia Rain.  And here’s the Punch Brothers’ NPR Tiny Desk concert from about nine years ago.   Enjoy! 

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Shared Space

It’s been a classic July 4th holiday week here in Granville, Ohio.  We shut down the main drag and host a festival every year, with games, rides, fried foods, music - the whole shebang.  The event draws people from all over the area.  I love the energy of it, and often find myself entranced by people watching.  We humans have such range.  We are all so different.  The truth of this smacks me in the face when I find myself sharing space with people from outside my bubble.  That bubble has shrunk considerably in the last few years.  

It grew and grew after graduating high school.  First were the college classmates, then the co-workers, neighbors, and the families whose children were in the same grades as ours.  New nodes of social network sprouted up continuously.  Since our youngest child graduated high school in 2021, the network quickly contracted.  No more soccer games or choir concerts, fewer and fewer graduation parties.  Fewer pets, even. (Lori and I are observing a non-replacement policy as our pets exit the stage, preparation for a future time when we can travel unfettered by pet care concerns.)  Mom left us.

COVID put a rather lengthy kibosh on interaction.  This probably skews my perception.  But Amazon has also been a real force in reducing the amount of human interaction many of us experience.  Rather than mingling with our fellow humans at brick-and-mortar retailers, we point and click on our computers, then wait for things to appear on our doorsteps.  This reduction in physical interaction, coupled with the hyper-fragmentation of media…no wonder things have become so tribal, so polarized.  There are fewer and fewer “water cooler” moments to unify us.  

I think this is less true in the more densely populated cities - especially those with robust public transportation options.  If you ride the subways of New York City, in one day you will share space with a wide array of people - spanning numerous religious faiths, political leanings, skin tones, countries of origin…people who are vastly more different than the folks walking the midway at the July 4th festival this week.  Yet they seem to be more tolerant of each other.  I think it is because they share space more often.

There once was a day when our elected officials were collegial with one another, at least when they weren’t debating topics on the floors of their respective legislative bodies.  They were able to vigorously disagree on matters of policy, then break bread in the Capitol cafeteria, or exercise with each other in the Congressional fitness center.  Not so much today…

I think we need to spend more time together.  Not to necessarily hash out anything specifically.  Just to be together.  I’m not exactly sure how to make this happen, but it’s not hard to imagine food playing a role in whatever ideas I might muster.  Let’s think on this, and then take action out in the real world.

Sunday Supper
I’ll be making this Rosemary Chicken and Peach Salad later today.  These Spicy Tuna and Avocado Tostadas look amazing, too.

Sunday Music
This live performance by Norah Jones with The Handsome Band in August, 2018, is a great listen this Sunday.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Least Worst

The buzz since Thursday has been all about the performance of the two presumptive candidates for President in Thursday night’s debate.  It is the nature of punditry to criticize, and there has been no shortage of criticism.  While the country is far from unanimous regarding which candidate would be the better person to serve in this important role for the next four years, there does seem to be consensus that these two candidates are reflective of a system in need of improvement.

We don't need to look far for a simple idea that could make a positive impact.  Businessperson-turned-politician Andrew Yang has been advocating for a shift to Ranked Choice Voting.  Here is how it would work for a single-winner election like the U.S. Presidency:

1. Voters rank the candidates according to their personal preference (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.)

2. If a candidate wins an outright majority of first-preference votes, they win the election.

3. If no candidate wins an outright majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated from the race, and the second-preferences of those ballots are then treated as first-preference votes.

4. A new tally is conducted in similar fashion until one candidate accumulates a majority of votes.

This approach would create a friendlier environment for voters to support 3rd party options.  Under the status quo, voting for 3rd party candidates is often viewed as “wasting” one’s vote.  Such candidates very rarely win an election, but their involvement in the process is often cited as playing a “spoiler” role for one of the two major party candidates.  With ranked choice voting, citizens can “vote their heart” safe in the knowledge that if they vote for an up-and-coming outsider that falls short of a majority, their 2nd preference will be honored if a re-tally is necessary.

This is a simple idea that would likely open up the political process to more candidates.  And if we believe anything in America, we tend to believe in the power of competition to increase the quality of available options.

Our political system is controlled by two parties, and they have no interest in creating a broader menu of options for voters. On this point, they are aligned with each other, and at odds with our broader collective interests.

Along with Death and Taxes, being forced to choose the least-worst candidate from a two-person race for President seems to be inevitable.  As such, I’m going to go to the polls, cast my vote and hope.  I hope all registered voters do the same.  As flawed as our system is, it is diminished further when we decide to not participate in it.

Have a safe and fun Independence Day!

Sunday Supper
If you are looking for some interesting grillables for the upcoming holiday, The Butcher & Grocer in Grandview Heights comes highly recommended.  This Carne Asada is a classic grilling option, as are these Tarragon-Mustard Chicken Skewers.  Quadruple Chile Cheeseburgers are an interesting way to go the extra mile this holiday week.  This Italian-American Pasta Salad looks fantastic, and you can’t go wrong with a Classic Cole Slaw or this Smoked Salmon Potato Salad.  

Sunday Music
Here is the storied Canadian band Rush, performing their classic, Freewill.  They Might Be Giants played a wonderfully stripped down set at NPR’s Tiny Desk twelve years ago.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Heck Yeah

Don’t you just love the new terms that arise out of meteorology?  Back in my day, this heat wave we’ve been experiencing would have been called just that - a “heat wave.”  But now we’re calling it a “heat dome.”  Okey dokey…. I’m feeling a little cranky, reminiscent of that famous crank, Andy Rooney.  Maybe it’s the heat affecting me.

I found myself thinking about how, as we age, we achieve this exalted status of having “Zero Fucks To Give.”  (This newsletter does occasionally allow cursing, but for the remainder of this essay all “fucks” will be converted into “hecks.”)

So, where do all the hecks go?

Many are lost as we accumulate wealth.  “Heck You Money” is the ultimate manifestation of this concept.  (If you ever read an essay from me that fails to translate curse words into tamer terms, you will know I have hit some sort of financial jackpot.). With each Zestimate emailed to be by Zillow, my heck count falls.  Years of paying our mortgage, combined with Intel’s arrival driving up home values has me feeling pretty good about my low-interest note and fast-growing equity in the house.  So, there is probably an inverse relationship between financial security and heck count.

Having kids has driven down many of my hecks.  Watching them grow up, enduring the status games of youth - and then noticing those same games being played by adults all around us.  It helped me to better see them for what they are, and respond accordingly.

Losing my parents definitely contributed to a steep decline in hecks for me.  Having a front-row seat to both of their exits has offered a special perspective - almost everything they ever cared about or worried about was rendered absolutely irrelevant when compared to mortality.  But this was more than a vicarious absorption of truth.  My dying parents exposed me to stresses that forced me to be brutally honest with myself about my priorities.  The emotional and physical energy expended required me to limit all other activities to just the essentials.  So I ended up learning what could wait…sometimes forever.

And that is when the last few hecks flutter off into the breeze.  When one really, truly appreciates just how brief life is, they just take off like butterflies. 

This doesn’t mean that I don’t care about anything.  It just means that my cares are hyper-focused on the precious few things that truly matter.  Lifting people up.  Laughing.  Eating well, nurturing others.  Setting a good example (my modest attempt at showing my fellow humans what I consider to be game theory optimal behavior for maximizing our time here on earth).  

Having no hecks is not the same thing as having a license to be an ass.  Being an ass has consequences, at least some of the time.  If my life is better lived by ignoring an ass, this is my preferred response.  But if compelled to engage, oof.  One must always avoid getting into a contest to establish who is the bigger ass with a heck-free elder.

Stay cool, my friend.

Sunday Supper
I’m leaning into cool salads this week.  No need to heat up the kitchen too much, or swelter over the grill.  This North African Tuna and Rice salad fits the bill.  So does this Thai Beef Salad.    This Smashed Zucchini w/ Chickpeas and Peanuts seems interesting, as well.

Sunday Music
This tune from Mr. Thomas Benjamin Wild, Esq. fits today’s theme quite nicely (though he does not translate the “F” word into “heck”).  This new tune from Lake Street Dive resonates.  And this set from the great Chaka Khan at the NPR Tiny Desk is fantastic - enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please share it with them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Dad Bod

Happy Father’s Day!  As a golf fan, it’s always one of my favorite days of the year.  The final round of the Men’s U.S. Open golf championship always falls on this day.

Lori has been spending more time with her father lately, which meant I drove solo to Durham last weekend to help our son move into a new apartment.  I went down on a Friday, returning to Ohio the following Sunday, and working hard almost every moment in between.  The year prior, our entire family of four moved him in to the previous place.  This time it was just the two of us.

My back hasn’t been 100% lately, and I was worried how it would hold up.  We got the keys to the new place at 10am Saturday, and was eating takeout Indian food for dinner at 10pm before hitting the hay.  In the interim, we relocated all of his belongings and completely cleaned the old apartment, handing the keys back to the landlady after a walkthrough.  

I felt surprisingly good when I woke up Sunday morning.  A preventative dose of Aleve plus daily yoga did the trick (not to mention regular visits to Always Forward CrossFit).  A quick trip to Target Sunday morning for some sundries, then we loaded up the car with things the lad wanted to send home and I hit the road back to Ohio.

At some point doing all this work on Saturday, I could feel my body moving much the same as my dad’s did when he helped me with big, physically challenging tasks.  It was uncanny - not exactly that I had become my father.  Just that I knew exactly what it felt like to be him, back when he toiled with me on various projects.   Like when we moved dirt in the backyard - with shovels, by hand, to create a level spot on which to build the boy’s play set.  Or when we re-roofed the house not long after moving to Granville.

Physical labor was no stranger to my dad.  I felt so close to him that day - and to Henry.  How many times will I have him all to myself again?  For him, it was a day of hard work,  accomplishing a big task.  It’s impossible for him to know how special it was to me.  Maybe some day he’ll have his own weird I’ve-become-my-father-deja-vu moment.

I see a chiropractor on a regular basis - something my father never did.  Knowing how my body feels today with regular back adjustments, it’s hard to imagine what dad’s in-body experience must have been.  He was a tough old man.  

Sunday Supper
For Sunday Supper today, these Garlic Butter Steak Bites are very dad-friendly, as are these French Onion Sliders.  Southern Fried Corn and Lemon-Garlic Kale Salad round things out.

Sunday Music
This Progressive House Mix will have your booty shaking today - let it rip!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please send it to them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Ingredient House

I had the good fortune to re-connect with a long-time friend this past week.  He is someone for whom I have a ton of respect and affection.  Circumstances are such that we don’t organically cross paths as much as we used to, so it’s extra refreshing when we talk.

Since it had been a while, he asked me how the meal kit business was doing.  I told him that we shut it down, for lack of product/market fit - both with grocers and consumers.  I said that I believed too few people actually want to cook - even if the ingredients are prepped and assembled in convenient kit form.  

He remarked that his kids once told him that when they went off to college, they learned that they grew up in an “ingredient house,” meaning a house that actually stocked basic ingredients for cooking - spices, grains, flour, etc.  “Ingredient House.”  Such a term would never occur to me, though I definitely grew up in one (we just called it a “house”). Clearly Lori and I raised our children in an Ingredient House.  What a kick it is to receive a photo of something one of the lads has cooked (this happens regularly)!

The existence of Ingredient Houses implies the parallel existence of…what?  “Food Houses?” “Prepared Food Houses?”  “Restaurant Houses?”  Maybe…I remember our next door neighbors going out to eat a lot more than we did when I was growing up.

You’ve heard me evangelize home cooking enough, so there’s no need to get back on that particular soap box.  I’m glad to have a new term in my quiver, though.

Every home contains ingredients - maybe not nutritional components, but perhaps the building blocks for intellectual, creative or spiritual development.  It’s a good practice to ask “What are the ingredients in this house?  What are we developing here?”  Whether by design or by default, we are always building something.

Sunday Supper
FYI - I cooked the Korean Fried Chicken in last week’s Sunday Supper recommendations, and it was fantastic!  This week I offer the following ideas for dinner tonight, or to prep for the week ahead:  This Roasted Eggplant w/ Tahini, Pine Nuts and Lentils looks wonderful.  Tri-Tip Beef Roast w/ Shallot Jus would be great (I love the taste and texture of the tri-tip).  Slicing some beef and topping this Brussels Sprouts w/ Lemon Vinaigrette with it would make for a great entree salad.

Sunday Music
I am pleased to share the 2024 NPR Tiny Desk Contest Winner:  The Philharmonik.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please send it to them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Critical Judgment

What a wonderful stretch of weather we’ve had this past week.  The Granville Farmer’s Market was bustling with sunshine and customers yesterday.  There’s rain in the forecast, which our farmers will appreciate.

Unless you are on a “news fast” you are probably aware that a Manhattan jury convicted Donald Trump on 34 counts of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal during his 2016 presidential campaign.  The trial and its result has reporters, analysts and opinion writers offering their two cents on it all.  From the fairness of the proceedings, to the likelihood of a successful appeal, to the political implications, there is no shortage of views being expressed - and everyone assigns different weights to the significance of different aspects of the story.  Only time will tell what this all means for Trump legally, politically and in the historical record.

It highlights a topic I have previously written about - the importance for all of us to strengthen our powers of critical thinking.  In the olden days of my youth, the mainstream media served as a curator of information, simplifying the framing of the news of the day.  I believe this made it a bit easier to be an informed citizen, but it also put the media in a position of unique power in terms of “setting the table” for what society focused on, discussed and debated.

In today’s internet-based world, the number of news outlets has exploded, as have individuals and groups who are “news adjacent” or “newsish.”  They look and talk like news reporters, offering their opinions without generating ground-level sourcing of information.  As individuals we are left to sort through the hard news, the opinions and even bad faith misinformation that flows freely across this frictionless, digital landscape right into our eyes and ears.

This drives home for me a simple thesis - those who wish to thrive in the future need to have better critical thinking skills than what was required in the past.  I am cautiously optimistic that we will all become better thinkers in the long run as a result of this technology-enabled explosion of information.

One reason for this optimism is that the world typically provides a strong feedback loop.  I’ve written about this in the past, but it remains a good example - the January 6th rioters put their faith in information sources that turned out to be mostly incorrect.  Now they are paying a steep price for that reliance.  I imagine these people will discount the quality of those information sources in the future, if they consider them at all.  In the last two U.S. Presidential election cycles, we have had the ability to see how both of this year’s candidates has performed in our highest office.  Those observations will inform how we vote in this cycle.

A second reason for my optimism is, perhaps ironically, technology.  The same technology that inundates us with more information than we can possibly process is training us to be more discerning - and making it possible to disrupt the ways that we teach and learn.  

Our education system is ripe for this type of disruption.  I can see a future where students of different learning styles can be taught in ways that are best suited for them.  Our brightest minds will go further, and faster, because they no longer will be held back by curriculum designed for the majority.  This mass customization of teaching will lift up both the ceiling and the floor of our human potential.  Everyone will have access to the best subject matter experts on any topic, delivered in ways that are best for their individual learning styles.

So, is Donald Trump the victim of a baseless political prosecution, or someone who ran afoul of the law and has been held to account by our judicial system?  We must each decide for ourselves.  It will be very interesting to see how it all plays out.

Sunday Supper
I cooked many of this week’s Sunday Supper recommendations for a special meal with friends last weekend.  This Roasted Salmon w/ Ginger-Lime Butter was wonderful, as was this Shredded Brussels Sprouts Salad w/ Miso Dressing.  For dessert, I made these Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts w/ a scoop of Jeni’s vanilla ice cream.  On my radar for the week ahead is this Korean Fried Chicken recipe, which is receiving a lot of positive reviews.

Sunday Music
This Sunday I am pleased to share with you this hour-long set of improvised electronic music created by the amazing Reggie Watts.  His talent for blending humor with music always puts a smile on my face.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please send it to them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Enter The Danger

This headline in the New York Times this past week struck me: “The Best Sex Advice Might Also Be The Hardest To Follow.  Some couples would rather get divorced than talk openly about their intimate lives.”  Here is a link to the article.

The starkness of the statement, and the fact that I found it unsurprising were both noteworthy.  My first thought after reading it was “If long-term loving couples can’t talk about sensitive topics, what hope do leadership teams in businesses have?”

Some keys to organizational health that we promote as EOS Implementers are Openness, Honesty, and Vulnerability.  Real people, talking about real things that really matter.  Our work often involves creating a more secure context within which these sensitive conversations can take place (sometimes for the first time).

In the Times article, a therapist named Cyndi Darnell is quoted as saying “talking about sex is awkward - which is especially true if you’ve spent months or years avoiding it.”  EOS Implementers are trained to “enter the danger,” to recognize the things in the session room that are going unsaid, and help clients examine sensitive topics.  As fraught as this can feel, these are the conversations that often yield great value.  Successfully engaging in sensitive discussions and safely coming out the other side of them builds a capability that exists in too few business teams.  The team that can discuss anything is a team to be reckoned with.

Again referencing the article, therapist Jeffrey Chernin says “One of the things I often say to couples who are having trouble is:  ‘I wish there was another way through this,’” he said.  “But the only way I know to have a better sex life, or to resume your sex life, is to discuss it.”  As Ryan Holiday so aptly puts it:  The only way out, is through.  In order to have the lives and businesses that we want, we have to explore awkward, personal, and sensitive topics sometimes.

A first step that is always available to us is to put ourselves out there, modeling the behavior that we wish to see from others.  To take full ownership of our experiences, and be willing to say “This isn’t working for me, here is what I think I need.  What do you think about this?  How does it make you feel?”

So often we get wrapped around our own axles.  Delaying and deferring the sensitive conversation only compounds the awkwardness of it when it can no longer be avoided.  But once we actually engage with the issues, there is great relief and growth to be enjoyed on the other side of these conversations.

So, enter the danger.  It will likely not be as bad as you fear.  And it has the potential to strengthen the relationships of those involved.

Sunday Supper
Some ideas to consider for Memorial Day cookouts - this Michelada Chicken looks yummy, as do these Memphis Dry-Rub Ribs.  This Creamy Cucumber Salad would pair well with each, as would this Snap Pea Salad w/ Mint and Tahini-Harissa dressing.  For a sweet finish, it’s hard to beat Lemon Bars, or these Grill-Baked Smoked Ancho Chile Skillet Brownies.

Sunday Music
Singer/songwriter Maggie Rogers was interviewed on Fresh Air this week.  What a lovely, creative person.  Here is a recent performance she gave on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and another on BBC Radio.  Lastly, here she is performing in 2018 on Saturday Night Live.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please send it to them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Evening, Beirut

I’ve never actually called the restaurant to order takeout, because I don’t live in Toledo.  But my friend Peter does a hilarious impression of how the phone is answered at the restaurant:  “Evening, Beirut.”  Two simple words, uttered with a Lebanese accent.

The Beirut, at 4082 Monroe Street in Toledo, Ohio is my favorite restaurant.  Period.  And it always will be.  It achieved this high status in my personal pecking order by virtue of many things.  

The first, of course, is by consistently producing delicious food.  So fresh, so good.  Lots of vegetables.  Overeating at The Beirut is nearly impossible to avoid, because everything is so delicious, and healthy to boot.  When dining at The Beirut, to quote comedian Louis CK, “The meal isn’t over when I’m full.  It’s over when I hate myself.”  Whatever self-criticism I levy for my gluttony, it’s always done as a compliment to the restaurant.  “Ah, Beirut…you got me again…”

I first visited the restaurant with Peter during the summer of 1989, if I recall correctly.  It was my first time eating Lebanese food.  It was probably my first exposure to tahini, and za’atar.  As I tasted each item, I remember thinking “This is good, but different…”  It was just different enough for me to go “huh…”. When we saw Peter’s dad and stepmom outside Ohio Stadium before a football game later that Fall, they had brought down lots of food from The Beirut to enjoy while tailgating.  Tasting it all that second time felt like a homecoming for my taste buds.  From that point forward, those flavor combinations and textures became hard-coded in my sense memory.

The restaurant was an early point of common connection when Lori and I started dating.  She had gone to grad school in Toledo, and The Beirut was her favorite restaurant, too.  It has become a touchstone for our closest friends and family - most of the most special people in our lives have made the pilgrimage to The Beirut, experienced it’s glory, embracing it as one of their top culinary experiences as well.

I can’t ignore the possibility that timing may be a factor in how strong my affection for The Beirut is.  All sorts of experiences from early adulthood seem to hold high significance.  The Beirut is like another one of my college friends, people with whom I’m still close today.  Experiences with them are etched just a little more deeply into my synapses.

I had an all-day meeting in Detroit this past Friday.  Afterward I drove to Toledo and dined yet again at The Beirut with Peter and his fiancé.  It was glorious.  If I could go there as often as I wanted, I wonder how often I would go.  Is it even possible to grow weary of that menu?  I'm sure I would test the limit.  I could probably order more reasonably, safe in the knowledge that I could return tomorrow.

If you ever have the chance to go there, do so!  I hope that you have a restaurant that means as much to you as The Beirut means to me.

Sunday Supper
This Sunday I’ll be prepping these Korean Beef Bulgogi Burritos and Kung Pao Chicken to jump start the week with some healthy, delicious meat and vegetables.

Sunday Music
This NPR Tiny Desk concert featuring Brazilian singer Luciana Souza swings!  And this performance by Yasser Tejedaprovides a perfect complement to Souza this weekend.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please send it to them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,

Running On Empty

DISCLAIMER:  I am not a doctor.  This post is simply sharing what I have experienced this year as I have implemented changes in the way I feed myself, with the goal of losing weight.  What I share here should not be construed as advice.

When I returned home from Fort Worth on January 4th, I stepped on the scale and weighed 239 pounds.  Yesterday the scale read 222.6 pounds.  This change has come about by virtue of me following three simple rules:

1. Minimize sugar intake.
2. Cook your own food.
3. Consume all daily calories within an 8-hour window of time each day.

Past attempts at weight loss had me weighing the food that I ate, counting calories, logging specific brands and products into smartphone apps…the administrative demands alone doomed these efforts for me.  Let alone the negative self-talk I would experience as I entered food items into the journal that I “shouldn’t” be eating.

This latest effort, with its simple rubric that requires no such tracking has resulted in the most consistent downward trend in body weight that I have ever experienced.  I think it is the simplicity that has helped me stick with it.  

Yes, I am exercising too - but I’ve done this consistently for years, while slowly gaining weight.  I know it sounds like an oversimplification, but weight loss/gain is truly a basic function of calories in versus calories out.  Mastering the diet is truly the last piece of the fitness puzzle for me.  I won’t say that I have achieved mastery yet, but definitely feel that I am on the right path.  Time will tell.

Some key takeaways:

• Food tastes extra good when I’m hungry.

• I sleep better on an empty stomach.  The extra energy I have each day was an unexpected bonus.

• My “bad” days are fewer, and sometimes planned.  I’ll extend a fast to “pre-pay” for an indulgent meal, and even when I simply deviate from the rubric, I’ve been able to "get back on the horse" quickly, rather than regressing to my previous norms.

• Hunger & emptiness aren't the same.  Honoring a 16-hour fast has not required me to feel hungry to the point of distraction very often.  For one thing, I’m asleep for at least half of the fasting period.  Secondly, I have come to appreciate the empty feeling I experience mid-morning, near the end of the fast.

My three simple rules have a bit of nuance baked into them (e.g. home-cooking means eating less processed foods), but essentially they distill down to the notion of skipping a meal, everyday, in order to lose weight.  

So much disease in America is driven by abundance and convenience.  Introducing a little scarcity into my life has increased my health.  My target weight is 210 pounds, which is 29 pounds lighter than I started the year.  We’ll see if I get there, and how well I maintain that weight once it is achieved.  I’ll keep you posted.

Sunday Supper
These Slow-Cooker Sticky Thai Meatballs look wonderful, and pair well with this Malaysian Coconut Rice.  This Asian Vegetable Stir Fry rounds the meal out nicely.

Sunday Music
Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates fame has his own show on YouTube called Live From Daryl's House.  In this episode, he plays a wonderful set of songs with the great Ben Folds.  Enjoy!

If you know anyone who might like this essay, please send it to them. 

Have a great week ahead!  Offer support to others.  Make good use of this day.  And let me know how I can help.

Peace & Love,