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An annual holiday letter from a dear friend Dennis L, written in a distinctive tongue-in-cheek voice rather than one of those more traditional over-the-top essays, prompted this post holiday season blog.  Dennis entertains. He’s Promethean in his holiday letter writing each year, giving it a facetious, human and refreshing twist. This year was no different and the humor added a much-needed detour after a sad turn in his life. He lost his wife and had to think about the real will she left behind. So, to add the humor he is known for among family and friends, he made this...

Writing is a solitary profession…but not for us. We have each other in this process and have for 33 years. Our partnership is solid and likely to last until we draw our last breath, whomever does so first. Whether giving a talk in person or more often these days on Zoom, the question always arises that has nothing to do with the content of our books (or articles). Instead, it has everything to do with how the two of us work together and have lasted in this relationship for so long.   Someone will ask, “How do you write with...

We spent New Year’s Eve together this year and with a few others. Before the clock struck Midnight, we decided as a group not to share our resolutions since we often break the vows, setting ourselves up for failure. We adhere to the  atavistic adage: Never say never.  Yet, a few days later the two of us were thinking we should have made them because doing so might have kept us more resolute to do this and not that—namely what we consume, how much we exercise, complain about the cold and the pandemic, our health, our spending and so on....

What a year 2021 has been.  Shootings, political battles, wars, climate change, pandemics, inflation, anger and so on. It can be daunting to hear about what is going on in the world that we cannot control. We also cannot control the weather, seasons or natural disasters. We cannot control what happened in the past, where we came from or what others think, say, feel and do. These are situations that we might just accept and stop worrying about since doing so can take its toll on our health, both physical and mental. Yet, there are matters and events that we...

Life can be pretty black and white at times, at least according to Santa’s rule book. Forget to say “please,” “thank you” and be kind to your friends, family and strangers and you risk making the naughty list and not having your holiday wishes granted.  We have discovered that in most cases it takes less thought and effort to do the right rather than wrong thing. Sometimes, we need someone else to show us how, the point of our list below, where we focus on etiquette for holiday gatherings, so key at this time of year. But as we know—and...