Category: Uncategorized

And Then There Was One

And Then There was One

My rational mind knows that the earth rotates at a constant rate.
However, I can’t help but feel that it must be speeding up.

I imagine I’m 16 years in the past, sitting atop a large vinyl record spinning on a turntable. My young family in a tight circle of warm embrace in the center of the album playing the music of our lives. There is no daylight between us. The player’s going slowly and the harmonic sound is sweet and simple even with many pops and scratches as the early years roll by.

The pace imperceptibly quickens as the kids grow. Centrifugal force begins to pull us all outward. Our hands now firmly grasped yet we can easily stand together as we spin. The melody is more complex, but the smooth rhythm plays on.

The speed unrelentingly building and the outward forces, not unkindly, but without sympathy increase. They learn to drive, their independence blooms. The music becomes more improvisational like jazz with players going on rifts of their own, but still coming back to the melody.

And that’s where we are. Only Hannah having a first day of school and Jack going away in a few weeks.

It’s easy to see into the not too distant future that the speed of the turntable will get to the point where they fly off to be the center of their own album. It’s as it should be.

I hope the music we made always runs through them fondly as a familiar refrain as they create their own symphony.
I can’t wait to hear it.Hannah

Marriage is a Garden

Twenty years ago today, we started our garden.
We had just the semblance of a plan and unbridled enthusiasm.
We grew up seeing many beautiful gardens, but also plenty that were overgrown and desiccating.
We were confident that with love and determination, ours would be the former.

It would not be a perfectly ordered set of rows with packets on stakes clearly marking what lay beneath. Our style was, and continues to be, a bit free form.
With laughter, a sense of adventure and a common desire to be together in real time, we made a nutrient rich soil that saw many easy to grow, cheerful perennials popping up all over.

Our first serious effort was when we planted what we thought was a rose. What germinated was a magnificent yet complex orchid, complete with hidden tunnels and unfamiliar structures. We continue to nurture that beautifully unique flower and be amazed by its colorful emergence.

Our second major endeavor did produce a glorious rose complete with strong roots and early sharp thorns. With great pride and loving guidance, we watch with wonder it as it blooms brightly with a joyous spirit happily opening to the sun.

Nature needs no magic, and our garden is no Eden.
We plant together, yet just as importantly, plant seeds of our own. We tend to each other’s efforts and no individual patch grows too tall to cast stifling shadows.
Our cacophony of flora needs constant attention to make sure the weeds get plucked early, the weevils are kept at bay and unnecessary fertilizer is washed away quickly.

Thank you, Susan, for getting your hands dirty, digging deep, hitting rocks yet moving on, for growing older yet never growing up.
Our garden will continue to be the focus of my life.
I love you madly. Happy Anniversary.

 20 years

Totality

Totality
My brother Ken and I took a short trip last week to hopefully see the total eclipse of the sun. The decision was made only a few days before during a conversation with our good friend Rick Seidman, CEO of one of our most favorite vendors, Quoizel Lighting. Rick was inviting us to Charleston to see his operation sometime in the next few months. A little light (no pun intended) went off above my head and I said, “Charleston, huh. You’re in the path of totality, right?”
Fast forward and we were the very happy guests of Rick and his wonderful wife Karen. We toured the factory, had meaningful conversations about our changing industry and our dynamic 50 year partnership. At about 1:00 pm, we boarded the small boat of his friend, Captain Dave, who piloted our craft only a few hundred yards from the aircraft carrier Yorktown.
I knew that the difference between seeing a partial eclipse, even one that is 99% total, and seeing the total eclipse is vast. One can be fascinating, but the other was said to be remarkable.
It’s similar to the difference one degree makes when heating water. As the motivational speaker, S.L. Parker, says, “water at 211 degrees is hot, but water at 212 boils. And with boiling water comes steam, and with steam, you can power a train.”
That extra degree to make water boil, that extra percent to get to totality, makes all the difference.
As the great event neared, the weather was not cooperating at all. There were powerful storms complete with long bolts of lightning and booming thunder all around. There were patches of light blue, but mostly the sky was thick with clouds.
With our eclipse glasses on, we could intermittently see the sun being slowly swallowed up by the moon. Bit by bit, it was disappearing and that was cool. When the sun was completely covered by the moon, we saw nothing, just clouds. We figured, well that was that. I was, of course, disappointed there may be nothing more, but was content with what we did see and that we had made the call to go. When deciding whether or not to do something that will require some effort or take the easy way out, I hear in my head the Lee Ann Womack song, “when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.”
So I was consoling myself that the gray sky had obscured the corona’s appearance and I’d just have to be happy with just really hot water when I looked up and saw it.
A ring of fire in the sky. I yelped in surprise and delight at one of the most amazing natural spectacles ever seen on planet Earth. I settled in to watch with jaw dropped wonder. A pulsing crown of flame made possible by the improbable confluence of a moon 400 times smaller than a sun 400 times further away.
I was in awe. I was John Snow reaching my hand out to touch the face of a dragon.
OK, I’m a bit of a nerd, noted, but it was truly magical.
The moon and sun made the music and I joyously danced to their short, but incredible, sweet song.