Whether you realize it or accept it or not, the core principle of modern America is that money makes everything better. When you have more of it, you’re doing well. When you have little, you’re doing poorly. It’s the same concept for businesses. When sales are up, everyone is happy. When people have jobs, they can afford to pursue their idea of the American Dream. People don’t start businesses to fail. And since revenue makes everything better, businesses try to make as much…
I reckon it’s easy to just blow this off as something that happens in other places to other people, but the fact that heroin use is so prevalent, and on the rise, is telling for a couple of reasons. First, it reinforces that we’re fallible creatures with serious flaws and that none of us are above certain biological predispositions. As human beings, we are susceptible to addiction of certain chemicals such as alcohol, nicotine, coffee, heroin, etc. Add to this that…
We’ve raised our girls to believe they can be anything in life, regardless of whether there’s an existing case study. We’ve raised them to believe that kindness and humility are weapons of peace, and that they should respect their ego but not succumb to it. We’ve raised them to be strong, ethical, and to lead with the truth. We’ve raised them to stand their ground, trust their gut, and always be willing to give in to love. I never did read…
The girls are away at camp, which affords me and my wife some time alone. A rare thing since the birth of our first daughter in 2001. Over the years, I’ve often wondered what our life together will be like when the children move on. After all, we’ve poured so much of our energy into this family. Sometimes I think we’ll grow bored of each other. Maybe even fall out of love. As we were driving somewhere over the weekend, we got to the…
My oldest daughter is part of a church youth group. They’ve been building a Habitat House at the church for weeks, and on Sunday they drove a big truck and a bunch of high school kids to John’s Island, SC (near Charleston) to assemble the structure. This is her and her friends getting ready to leave Charlotte. She’s the one on the left. On Monday they started work, and accomplished a lot. She even made a new friend. After work on Tuesday, the…
Write what you know, they say. In my book Minor King, I rail on everything from the rich, the poor, politics, religion, corporate corruption, insurance companies, but mostly–the little guy getting screwed over. The Machine, I call it. Every year I get a physical. It’s a privilege from paying thousands of dollars a year in health insurance, co-pays, and annual deductibles. Sure, I needed insurance recently with the trip to the ER, but mostly we just use insurance for checkups and…
