Category: Commentary

Halloween is a favorite time of year around our house. While we don’t decorate the outside – orange lights strung in shrubs is not our thing – the inside becomes a vivid display of all things pumpkin. That includes the pumpkin bread I consume in way too large quantities, although no pumpkin spice latte ever crosses our lips.

One reason this date is special is because it’s the birthday of the brother that’s closest to me in age. Mike was born October 31, 1955, which means today is Medicare day number one.

I recall our two oldest brothers telling a story about that date. Then ages nine and six – they went ‘Trick-or-Treating’ in their Fort Worth suburb… by themselves. When people opened their doors, instead of saying those three magic words guaranteed to earn candy, they said, “Our mother just had another boy.”

Mike is a wonderful husband, father, grandfather and friend. He’s run his own insurance agency for more than two decades, built and sold – along with wife Kathy – several custom homes, and can do anything with his hands. He also holds two Masters degrees and recently was ordained a deacon in the Catholic church after many years of study.

He’s a pretty awesome brother, too… now.

Five years older than me, my mother said he would get under my baby crib and kick. He apparently didn’t appreciate having a younger sibling in the house. That’s OK. Mike made it up to me over the years and someday – maybe on his 75th – I’ll let it go.

Today is the anniversary of one of our nation’s most tragic events… bombings of the World Trade Center and Pentagon and take down of UA Flight 93. As promised in the days immediately after the unthinkable, we pause each year on 9/11 and remember those who died innocently and those who gave their lives trying to save them.

In my anthology released in June, Words Flow Through Me, I included the tribute I wrote after the death of my former employer, Bud Hadfield. Within is this paragraph:

My dad, with whom I had a terrific relationship, died suddenly four years before I met Bud, so it was natural he would serve as a father figure. When the first plane struck the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, I went into his office to inform him, and said, ‘I don’t know what to feel or think right now.’ My dad enlisted in the Navy the day after Pearl Harbor, and I needed someone to add perspective. ‘When you’re attacked,’ Bud said, “you do what you have to do.‘

In the days, weeks, months and years that followed we did what we had to do. Things got better. Then came an unending war. Then the financial crisis. Then the stock market crash. Then things got better for a long time. Then Covid.

The slog is into its seventh month and the emotional meter rises with every promise of a vaccine and falls whenever an AstraZeneca tells us it’s a long road to approval. Yet, we must stay confident that one day, hopefully, soon, we will come out the other side… and in 5, 10, 19 years, we’ll pause to remember our shared experiences.

Bud died nearly 10 years after 9/11, so he’s not here to provide guidance to me. However, I’m confident that if I could walk into his office and ask for perspective today, he would deliver one of his favorite sayings: “Let’s go to work!”

Today marks the end of the most amazing uncertain challenging disruptive surprising controversial enlightening surreal frustrating inspirational first half of a year you’re likely to ever experience again.

Things got off to a wonderful start when the crystal ball dropped in Times Square on January 1. By February, the stock markets were hitting all-time highs.

Then Covid-19. People died. The nation shut down. Workers stayed home. The economy stopped. Those same streets of New York empty. The Fed and Treasury infused liquidity into the markets. Wall Street soared back.

Then George Floyd. Protests across the nation. Voices seeking to highlight systemic racial unjust drowned out by looters and rioters. Factions took sides. Support Black Lives Matter. Back the Blue.

Then states reopened. Georgia. Texas. Florida. Half capacity. Three-quarters. Social distancing. Prom. Graduation. Memorial Day. Maybe this pandemic isn’t what we thought. Over-hyped by the left-leaning media. Underplayed by those on the right.

Then virus spread. Arizona. Texas. The Deep South. New cases nearing 50,000 per day. Hospitalizations rising fast. Return to closure for bars. Restaurants back to fewer customers at a time. Everyone should wear a mask. No one can make me.

This look back at recent history is a reminder that we didn’t see any of this coming six months ago. In hindsight, our New Year’s Eve 2020 vision wasn’t good – and we don’t have any idea what’s to come the rest of the year.

However, you have a chance to do things differently. Rather than make everything about your personal view of things, focus your energy on those around you. Listen more. Talk less. Think about their experiences, perspectives and needs.

The world will get through these times that defy all adjectives. Humanity always finds a way. The question is will we collectively as a society be better, the same or worse than when the year started 183 days ago?