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. …
My Legacy Manifesto
Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared several versions of my manifesto. Each one was written by my artificial intelligence helper Al. I started the process at the suggestion of my son David. I kept it going when I was a bit short of fresh ideas to write about. Since the series hasn’t been well …
$13.61
Shortly after I was born, my parents bought a life insurance policy for me with a $1,000 payout upon my death and an annual premium of $13.61. Mom and Dad were the beneficiaries, and I believe Dad bought it at Mom’s insistence, thinking they’d need the money for final expenses. Funerals back then typically cost …
My Community Manifesto
I’ve always believed people thrive when they’re part of a community. To me, a community is a group of people who share common values and a strong bond. That’s how groups grow and flourish and how clubs are born. It’s a social group bound together by geography, profession, lifestyle, circumstances, beliefs or interests. I’ve chosen …