Ironing a Shirt

A son’s 25th birthday celebration. All the kids home for the weekend. Laughter, discussions, more laughter. Beautiful fall weather. A lunch hour swim. A late afternoon bike ride. A phone call, an e-mail, a card in the mail. A drive through the neighborhood. These are among the memories of the last few days. Life doesn’t get much better.

And yet today, September 11, 2004 is also a time of reflection over the past three years. I can remember ironing a shirt a couple of days after the towers fell in 2001. Seeing the wrinkles disappear some how brought comfort. Sometimes when I wear that shirt I still remember that night.

Dry Canyon

Here's the Salt Lake valley as seen from last night's after-work ride up Dry Creek Canyon east of the University of Utah. I haven't been as serious about mountainbiking this summer as swimming. Early in the ride I thought I'd traded lungs for gills with all the pool time, but once my endorphins kicked in the ride turned out great.

You can breathe all you want underwater, but exhaling only is generally more comfortable.

Dog Bone It

"Pursue, keep up with, circle round and round your life, as a dog does his master's chaise. Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still."
-Henry Thoreau

George's Voyage to America

I'm a great grandson of a Englishman who sailed to America 140 years ago. My great grandpa George was a 29-year-old married father when he responded to preaching of Mormon elders and neighbors. Although he joined the church, his wife Ann did not share his enthusiasm for the new religion. He left her and an infant daughter behind, hoping they'd eventually join him. They never did. Although his diary has been published in print and elsewhere on the web, this is the first "blog edition."

George Finlinson's 1864 Voyage to America

Durante on Schnozzles

"All of us have schnozzles--are ridiculous in one way or another, if not in our faces, then in our characters, minds or habits. When we admit our schnozzles, instead of defending them, we begin to laugh and the world laughs with us."
-Jimmy Durrante, quoted in Laughter Therapy, How to Laugh About Everything in Your Life That Isn't Really Funny, by Anne Goodheart

Signature Strengths

The highest success in living and the deepest emotional satisfaction comes from building and using your signature strengths.
-Martin Seligman