Category: Commentary

Living in Houston – at least in our Northwest part of the megapolis – there are several power surges and brief outages each month. (We won’t mention, for the purpose of this missive, the longer ones caused by hurricanes and freezes.)

Experts say these shorten the life of electronic devices, so having surge protectors is essential. When we moved here in ‘98, I diligently added them between every expensive piece of equipment and the wall outlets – and kept them in place whenever we replaced things.

A few months ago, I thought, ‘Wonder how long these things last?’ Several Google clicks later and I learned each power hit reduces the overall effectiveness and, thus, the lifespan of a surge protector. That means ours became worthless about a decade ago.

Amazon soon delivered ones for the entire house – not an inexpensive investment – and I took the old ones to Best Buy to be safely recycled or disposed.

Last week, we upgraded the nearly 24-year-old electrical circuit breaker box in our garage… and it includes an additional line of defense: a whole-home surge protector. While I haven’t known anyone who lost equipment to a power surge or outage, I sleep better knowing the first likely won’t be us.

From my home office, I have a straight view out my window to the house across the street. Every Thursday morning, a blue Toyota Camry pulls up, circles our cul-de-sac and parks in front of it. Three women climb out, open the trunk, each take out a handful of cleaning items and go inside.

About an hour later, they walk out, put the materials back in the trunk, get in the car and drive away. From here, I don’t know where they go; however, my guess is it’s onto another house to repeat the same routine. Every day. Like clockwork. For many years.

During my training at the Disney Institute more than two decades ago, the facilitator told us the longest-tenured cast members at Walt Disney World Resort were housekeepers – at an average of 18 years. “As you ponder that,” he said, “think about what they do.”

Maybe we should spend more time considering how lucky we are that there are people who want to clean our toilets, teach our children, mow our yards, patrol our streets, serve in our hospitals, work our drive-throughs and do so many other jobs that make our lives easier.

Every day. Like clockwork. For many years. 

The world’s oldest person died this week. Kane Tanaka was born in Japan on January 2, 1903. What else happened that year?

The first west-east transatlantic radio broadcast from the U.S. to England occurred a few weeks later. Henry Ford raised $28,000 in cash and founded a motor company in June. The Wright Flyer took to the air at Kitty Hawk in December.

So her life spanned the first flight to the first crypto Super Bowl ads.

Meanwhile, last Friday my lifelong friend – and former producer during my television sports career – and I visited our now 87-year-old former director. He seemed in good health, although many pounds lighter than several decades ago. He did walk with a cane and got around well.

He also repeated the same story at least 20 times – and kept asking us if we ever worked with an announcer we all did many game with in the 80’s. When we showed him a picture of the three of us with another announcer, he didn’t recognize him.

The last thing he said to us – with a laugh: ‘The next time you see me, I’ll be in a coffin.”

It’s tough to see others age, especially those we love or knew when their minds were clear. There’s an old adage: ‘it beats the alternative;’ however, I’m not sure that being unable to remember things is a worthwhile quality of life. I tell our kids, “Just give me 85 and out.”

That feels a lot better than 119. 

The eyes of the world are on Ukraine, with a lot of uncertainty about Putin’s intentions and the ultimate response of an aligned U.S. and western Europe. 

While the suffering of innocent people is always disheartening – and should be the first thing all of us consider – watching our political leaders and national media continue to take positions on polar ends of the spectrum is disappointing.

Fox News, and especially Tucker Carlson, lean far right… pointing fingers directly at President Biden, despite the fact he’s been in office one year and the positions of his predecessors this century contributed to Russia’s confidence in taking previous actions and embarking on the current one.

CNN always leans far left – with headlines this morning that include: “Putin’s lie: His justification for invasion draws outrage”; “Trump defends praise of Putin even as he calls Ukranian President ‘brave’”; “The invasion of Ukraine changed everything on Wall Street”.

The rhetoric and positioning of Republicans and Democrats is typical, expected and rooted in capitalizing on a crisis – similar to how it plays out Every. Single. Time. 

Somewhere, Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley and Peter Jennings are shaking their heads… wondering what happened to journalism and where we go from here. 

Recently I facilitated a leadership team retreat during which the host played a video of a ‘Super Soul Sessions’ talk from about six years ago by Brene’ Brown. The noted writer and lecturer spoke of ‘BRAVING’ – her acronym about building trust. She also said whenever a word doesn’t exist, like that one, she just makes it up to fit her needs.

While her creation of new words is intentional, lately I seem to be doing a lot of it without purpose. Perhaps it’s a sign of aging. Maybe it’s a lack of focus. Could be my RAM needs rebooting. Nonetheleast, some of the words coming out of my mouth aren’t exactly what I’m intendering.

Sometimes my verbalizeration is simple: “Kelsey said she’ll be here by five,” when, in fact, it was our other daughter Kirsten. Occasionally, I’ll reverse syllables: “You might want to check out this show ‘Luficer’ we’re watching on Netflix.” Then there are times the word is stuck in neutral: “I noticed we haven’t gotten a check from… from… from…” I can clearly see the company name, but I can’t speak it.

With perhaps three-quarters of life behind, I’ll admit to thoughts of the mind and body decline. As a writer, I can wait for the right word to flow through me… or, at the least, spellcheck or use an online dictionary. As a coach and speaker, well… this could be a problem.

Of course, the late comedian and ‘Master of Malaprop’ Norm Crosby made a career out of misspoken words… and Yogi Berra seemed far better known for his challenges with the English language, especially to later generations, than his Hall of Fame baseball legend. So maybe the inagility to say what I’m thinkering isn’t all that bard.