Category: General Interest

January 29, 2022

48 Hours: Crimson Tide, Civil Rights and a Football Legend

The workweek was over. Plans for the weekend were floating in my head but nothing solidified. Within 48 hours, I would traverse four states and 1,400 miles of American roads. I’d visit one of the most somber of Civil Rights sites, attend the most dynamic live sporting event I’ve ever experienced, walk on the home field of one of the greatest high school football players of all time, and enjoy a short segment of one of this country’s most scenic byways.

Sometimes, the best-laid plans aren’t laid at all.

Just get up and go.

July 22, 2025

Remembering Mom: Carol Healy

She just needed to hear those words from him one more time. She had confirmation of a good life lived–that she was loved–that she made a difference here on Earth. Within seconds, she was sleeping peacefully. She was ready for the next chapter. It was time.

Mom died in Duluth at 1:10 am, shortly after smiling that one final time.

She lived a good, long life and gave me the ability to do the same. Tonight, for the first time in more than 64 years, I won’t be able to talk to her.

But I’ll ignore that reality for a bit longer and still keep trying. And I’ll start with this:

“I love you, Mom.”

February 2, 2026

If He’d Only Said Something…

I parked in the back corner of the cemetery to put as many gravestones as possible between me and those normal folks going about their serene Sunday morning lives. This was the perfect setting for an imperfect day. The perfect setting to devise my ‘get busy living’ or ‘get busy dying’ plans. The cemetery might not have been my brightest choice, but this wasn’t my brightest day. This was decision day. One way or another, a turning point.

April 25, 2021

When I Grow Up

During my pre-teen years—perhaps before my age reached double-digits, while my two brothers were off doing other things, I frequently accompanied my Mom, Carol Healy, on shopping trips to Duluth, Minnesota.

Groceries. Clothes. Supplies.

On one such trip, I had been watching the peculiar, repetitive interaction of rain with windshield wiper blades when she posed life’s most difficult question. Well, at least at that time, it was.

It wasn’t about school. It wasn’t about girls. It wasn’t about sports.

Just a simple question.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

November 4, 2021

One Dog’s Mission: Accomplished

In December of 2017, a small brown-and-white dog resisted entry into a pet adoption meet-and-greet at a large pet supplies store in the Dallas area.  Abandoned by her original owners, she’d found comfort with her foster mom. She wanted no part of gambling with yet another set of humans. She’d been abandoned because her first family “didn’t have time for her.”  Her forever family would someday lament they didn’t have enough time with her.