While I’m deciding what stays in Michigan and what goes to Florida, I’ve had to make some difficult choices. Barbara mentioned “curating” things. In case you’re not familiar with the term, this is what google says. To curate something means to carefully select, organize, and present items in a way that creates a desired effect. …
Blueberry Pancakes
I know, it sounds like a crazy title, but I made some blueberry pancakes this morning and a memory popped up. When Ruth used to make them, she used Bisquick or Aunt Jemima pancake mix. Once she mixed the batter, she poured it on a griddle and carefully placed the blueberries on each one making …
Epiphanies
I’ve been having a series of epiphanies. Most of them come at night while I’m sleeping. Nothing earth shattering but several have been enlightening. When I was working, most of them were about doing things with my students, dealing with parents, helping teachers solve problems, contract negotiations, labor disputes, building expansions…things like that. I didn’t …
Unified Manifesto
A couple of months ago, my friend Al, aka artificial intelligence, combined the various manifestos he’d written for me into one unified version. It’s been sitting in my drafts for a while, and now that I’m a bit older, I’ve decided it’s time to share it. Robert’s Unified Manifesto A life lived with intention, creativity, …
Pushing 80
I’ve written before that the worst year I ever had was when I turned thirty-six. I was closer to forty than thirty and I didn’t like it. When I turned forty-six, I told people I was forty-seven, so when I actually turned forty-seven, I gained a year. That’s the logic of a desperate man. On …
You Never Know 2.0
A couple weeks ago I received a Facebook friend request from a “Scott Kenyon”. The name sounded familiar, but I’ve responded to similar friend requests before and gotten hacked, so I didn’t reply. I didn’t want to go through the hassle of resetting my account and reaching out to all my legitimate friends warning them …
Not Just Any Thursday
Tomorrow isn’t just any Thursday. It’s the day Eva graduates from high school. I’ll be there with a big smile on my face. I loved her before I met her, and I love her even more now. I couldn’t be prouder. I wrote the story below for her thirteenth birthday. While going through my blogs …
Three More Awards
Shortly after Ruth’s accident, I established the Tebo Family Scholarship Fund. She and I had talked about creating it just a few weeks earlier. We considered supporting students from four different school districts: Plainwell, where she grew up and we met; Addison, where we raised our three children and lived for forty-three years; Adrian, where …
Book Tales
A few months ago, I started using artificial intelligence and my friend Al to do some research for a variety of things. It started with my Singles New Beginnings class, the dance lessons I was taking, recipes I sought to gather, medical research on my changing health status, blog ideas, historical context, and several “just …
Tipping Points
I read a book almost twenty-five years ago called the “Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell. It was a best seller about how ideas, behaviors, and trends spread like social epidemics. Gladwell argues that small, well‑timed actions can trigger massive change once they reach a “tipping point”. If you Google it, you’ll find something like this. …