thoughtbubbling

Photo taken by Rochelle Luckwitz. Read Full Story

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Permission to speak in vague references and ponder online, Sir: I've been speaking to someone accomplished in what I consider Big Things - as a former journalist who covered international stories, as founder and CEO of an education-related company, as a novelist, and as global activist supporting clean water and female education initiatives in developing nations. I may potentially be doing some small  projects with this Big Thing person, and while our philosophies and concerns line up, our... Read Full Story

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My four-year-old son was hiding in a stroller we had inside to clean, and as I walked by he said, "I'm invisible!" I peeked around the edge of the stroller and was relieved to find out he was mistaken -- I could actually still see him. But, I wondered, what if my four-year-old son actually had become invisible? If invisible, I would need to step carefully* in case he was napping on the floor. Children might not nap on demand, but they may at unexpected times fall asleep on the couch, car... Read Full Story

I've been thinking about Rock and Roll. I've been thinking about Rock and Roll because my 10-year-old son asked if I had this cool song he liked for his MP3 player. After he sang a few lines, I realized it was  "Sympathy for the Devil". He had heard it during a dance performance on the TV show So You Think You Can Dance? and it had also showed up in one of his Wii games -- both times by the Rolling Stones and not a cover of the song. It was at that point I realized how "not far away" these... Read Full Story

While cell phones,  DVRs, plastic grocery bags, laser pointers, and other amazing items exist, they are not things I treasure in the World of Things. Digital music is convenient, for example, but my life is not more satisfying than when I listened to records. Same with cell phones. And microwave ovens. Faster? Sure. but, for me, not necessarily better, and in some cases, a little less satisfying. (I loved records and I just don't like microwave ovens.) For this New Year of 2011, however, I... Read Full Story

Guess the mystery in the driveway To get some exercise, my family and I decided to have a winter adventure at the nature trails at Penitentiary Glen Nature Center, a portion of the Lake Metroparks in Ohio. Our winter adventure began in our driveway, when my four-year-old son excitedly called me to see a "mystery." (See picture above) On further inspection, the mystery turned out to be ...  ... an avocado. How would an avocado get in my drive? I swear I have written a previous blog post about... Read Full Story

I did not want to go outside in the cold. The kids wanted to play in the snow, which I heartily encouraged, but with the exception of the littlest one (20 months) and myself, everyone else agreed adult supervision (meaning me) was required for the baby. I argued that with the snow as deep as it was, the baby surely would be unable to get too far, but that logic sounded much weaker when actually spoken. After one or two... a couple... a substantial number of sighs and grumbles, I suited up, my... Read Full Story

One day my four-year-old son woke me extra early, excitedly calling, "DAD! DAD!" My eyes opened from some type of automatic stimulus/response reaction. I didn't open them as I was still trying to process what "DAD!" meant. They did open, however (well,  at least one of them did), and saw the blurry outline of a wooden puzzle piece shaped like a seahorse. The outline was blurry because the puzzle piece was 2 millimeters away from my nose. If you don't know metric, 2 millimeters is the standard... Read Full Story