When I was growing up in the 1980s, Africa was portrayed in the news as a continent riddled with war and poverty. It’s partly due to the nature of news—sensationalism sells—but it was also stark reality. Many wars in Africa ended when the Berlin Wall came down in 1991. Still, by the mid-90s, thirty-one of the continent’s
When I visited Normandy, I stayed in Bayeux. The old French town is a 2-hour train ride from Paris. It’s a beautiful area known for having inspired Impressionist artist, Claude Monet. The British Cemetery and Bayeux Cathedral were walking distance from my hotel. My tour guide picked me up 100 meters from where I stayed. We
A lot has happened since my last post. I’ve now got a gold wedding band on my left hand! I’ll write about the BIG day and post pictures as soon as we receive them. Today, I want to say ‘Thank You’ to those who’ve served our great nation, and share a story I’m reminded of on
I’ve come to realize, through my travels, that my curiosities are insatiable. The more I learn about the world, the more I realize I don’t know. Perhaps a man should travel at least enough to become aware of his own ignorance. My fascination with World War II, The Cold War & Communism, keeps growing with
If you grew up around people who “gave you shit” all the time, consider yourself lucky. It means you probably learned to deal with shit-testers in ways others did not. A shit test (ST) is when someone “gives you shit” to see how you react. It can be a question or assertion. Its intent is
It occurs to me, as I write this at age 37, that my life mostly feels like a fantasy dream. I do what I want, when I want…and things seem to work out for me. If I were told it’d all end tomorrow, I might borrow Lou Gehrig’s famous speech and upload it to the
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with baseball. I wanted to be like Yogi Berra. He was one of my favorite “old-timers” because my grandfather, “Fats,” was an Italian catcher from the same era. If I hadn’t been born a southpaw, I probably would’ve been a catcher too. Berra was not only a
Relationships are hard. They’re even harder when you’re stupid. Many years and tears brought me to this realization. Truth is, I still may be no better at relationships than you. My best qualifications for writing about the interplay between men and women are a preponderance of boneheaded moves. Richard Feynman once said, “I don’t know anything,
The topic of male/female differences, and our respective communication styles, is seemingly taboo in our society. Our unwillingness to discuss inter-gender dynamics helps none of us in relationships. How men and women interact is the basis and barometer of our civilization. I can think of no more valuable skill set to possess than that of
The concept of “love” is so important that I rarely tell someone, “I love you,” unless I’d be willing to die for them. It seems crazy that we’d make the ultimate sacrifice for another person. But love is an irrational intensity of affection and loyalty we’ve developed over millennia to ensure our species’ survival. There
There’s a disturbing trend in our country: Young men are abandoning masculinity and becoming more feminine; young women are becoming more masculine. This observation became glaringly obvious when I returned to the United States after visiting parts of Latin America and Eastern Europe. At a coffee shop in Bucharest, Romania, I was talking to a