In my family of origin, there were six of us. Mom, dad, one sister, two brothers and me. We lived in a house that was 700 square feet. Two bedrooms, one bath. Tight quarters to say the least. Money was always short. Times always felt hard, at le…
In this most recent episode of Exploracast, Ray Daughtery talked about some of the signs one might look for when considering risk for developing alcohol/drug abuse and addiction. Among many other things, he talked about response to using the substan…
In preparation for a class I was teaching, I read an essay By Amy Frykholm, entitled “Enslavement and Exodus” (1) , where she quoted Rabbi Ted Falcon. Rabbi Falcon has spent his life studying and teaching about Jewish spirituality, meditation, and i…
I know that I have mentioned several times in our podcast that I was diagnosed with leukemia several years ago. Some might think I overshare, but I believe in and want to model the idea that despite how men are cultured to keep personal and emotiona…
I’ve lived much of my life in fear. Not so much of spiders or snakes, heights or the monster under the bed…..although I do remember a time when I started to realize that the monster wasn’t under the bed but was living in my head. The fear tha…
In our podcast that posted on August 1, 2026, we discussed how we have been changed in some fundamental ways by experiences, events, tragedies and encounters with people. Those changes may result in shifts of self-perception, identity, world views, …
I'm proud of my heritage and upbringing, just in case that has not been clear on our podcast but there were also things that I grew up with and believed as irrefutable truths that I had to make some decisions about later on in life. One of these was…
I just returned from a meeting at the Community Center in our little town. We were looking at the facilities as we plan a reception that will be held there. I was once again struck by how well done and usable the Community Center is. Nice rooms f…
In preparation for the celebration of our nation's birthday, my wife and I have been watching some documentaries about the early days of our nation’s birth. I am still mulling over some early impressions from these stories. There have alway…
As I've stated many times here and elsewhere, I proudly hail from Appalachia. I was born in Lee County, Kentucky and raised on a farm about 10 miles from the county seat of Beattyville (population of less than 1,000). As the subject of elitism has b…
In a recent conservative radio interview with Representative Jen Kiggans, the host suggested that Representative Hakeem Jeffries keep his “cotton-picking” hands off of the Virginia redistricting fight. Rep. Kiggans laughed and agreed, and has sinc…
I grew up in Oklahoma City in the late fifties and sixties. We lived on the Southwest side of our city, which was populated mostly by blue collar light skinned humans. While Native Americans and Latinos were a part of the everyday world, there wer…
I grew up in the 60s and 70s, which was the time of what was called the Second Wave of the Women's Movement. There were women in the news who were marching, shouting, burning bras, writing books, and otherwise doing all they could to draw attention …
On my mother’s side of my genetic tree, I come from a long line of short people. My maternal grandmother did not make it to 5’. Her many siblings, spread over Butler and Muhlenberg counties in Kentucky, never reached over 5’2”. The men were small …
I am 76 years old, and I’ll tell you this. I’ve always loved the 4 of July. Growing up in a relatively poor family on the Southside of Oklahoma City, it seemed to me that we didn’t have a lot to cheer about. My parents were children of the great d…
Ok. I'll admit it. I'm angry and I feel comfortable talking about it to you because mainly I am angry with myself. What I'm angry about is my lack of action; my lack of commitment; my unwillingness to make the necessary sacrifices. A couple of podca…
Starting in High School and continuing over the course of my adult life I have attended more than a few Job Fair/Career Expo events. Sometimes as a job seeker and sometimes representing an entity looking to hire. Most have been informative, occasion…
To show I wasn’t just a stuck-in-his-ways-has-been old man, nor a card-carrying luddite, I asked Claude AI to write a few lines about ageism. Here is what Claude said: “Ageism remains one of the most socially accepted forms of discrimination, yet i…
All my life I’ve heard that it’s better to give than receive. But to be honest, there have been times along the way when I wondered if that was really true. I mean, I’ve surely wanted it to be true. For goodness' sake, the quote is attributed to …
In 1986, American minister, Robert Fulghum wrote a very popular book titled All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten. It's a lovely little book that conveys the idea that especially in regard to human values, what we were taught back the…
I grew up in a home where anger was the norm. Our father, who was a good man and loved his family, had an anger problem. Easily provoked, his fuse seemed to be perpetually lit, just waiting to burn down. Needless to say, those of us who grew up i…
This is a question that seems particularly relevant today. “Truth” appears to have been taken hostage and belittled in the exponential growth of AI-driven social media, political divisiveness, “culture wars”, and mean-spirited diatribes rife with la…
There was a concept presented to me several years ago about what it means to be in crisis. What I learned was that in many cases, a crisis is equal parts danger and opportunity. Sure, there are some not so great things about to happen but if we chan…
This painting is a depiction of the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage taken by thousands of people annually. It was painted by a fellow pilgrim with our guest, Scott Wojahn, and incorporates the words to a song written by him about his journey. Scott…