Basement Stories A lot of memorable things have happened in basements. One of my favorite movies is “Signs.” The basement scene is great! The world is being invaded by aliens. Mel Gibson’s character, Graham, is holding his basement doorknob to prevent the aliens from getting into the basement. Kind of funny. The aliens can’t get…
I’ve had three behavior jobs. One with hawks, one with dogs, and one with people. I loved them all. I’m a Behavior Analyst First, my job with people. Since 2003, I’ve been working with people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Really, I work with their caregivers. The Behavior Plans that I write are not written…
I am A Social Worker I moved to Louisville 30 years ago to attend Social Work School. It seemed like a good decision considering I had spent the previous 15 years becoming disenchanted with being a Baptist Minister. I was still going to help people, but this time with an emphasis on social justice-social policy….
Dad’s Bad Idea I grew up in rural Southern Indiana, not too far as the crow flies from where Lincoln spent his formative years, around 10 miles from Spencer County. For some reason, Dad was happy bouncing around Warrick County. One of the places we landed was a 50-acre farm with a 100-year-old two-story farmhouse….
OK, so ask me how I’m doing. There’s lots of uncertainty in the world, in our country. Families are struggling for lots of reasons. Is there going to be a recession? What about the Rule of Law? What about Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security? So, how am I doing? I’m doing, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! as Bert and…
I’ve run two marathons in my life. The second marathon I ran, I called, “When the Chickens Come Home to Roost Marathon.” Actually, the name everyone else chose to call it was, The Air Force Marathon. First, why did I run it? Well, the answer is, I wanted to impress the man who I would…
“I am a jogger!” says no one today. OK, there was a time, many years ago that I referred to myself as a jogger. In 1978, I was attending college in Portland, Oregon and started jogging. Prior to that, I hadn’t even thought about jogging. I was a Long Jumper in high school and ran…
I was scrolling this morning, and I happened to see a reel from a therapist that had a list of things to avoid in order to take care of your mental health. The first one was: Stop scrolling first thing in the morning. First, I think he’s right. Second, it’s a little ironic that someone…
My very first trip out west was in January 1979. I was headed to college in Portland, Oregon. I was raised around a little snow in Southern Indiana, but I know it’s not Minnesota or the Rockies. I’d recently been discharged from the Air Force in September, spent six weeks visiting my parents in Southern…
It took 13 hours, but I finished my second Rim to River to Rim of the Grand Canyon. When I finished, the first thing I did was call my wife and tell her that I would never, ever, under no circumstances, ever do it again. “I know you Bear,” she replied, “Once you recover, and…
