Margie and I were eating dinner on the back porch one evening and she said “You’re going to go to Ohio for your dad’s operation tomorrow morning, right?” I told her that it had been suggested by everyone in Ohio that there was no need for me to go up since his operation was [...]
I was recently part of a conference and had the opportunity to sit in on a presentation by Rabbi Steven Leder. The title of his talk was “Being a Good Ancestor.” One of the things he asked us to consider (and he noted, it has been a tradition in Jewish culture for many [...]
“You know, you live a pretty exotic life,” my wife, Margie said to me recently. I was sort of taken aback, because I wasn’t sensing living an “exotic” life.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
She said, “Think about it. Right now you are in Chicago. Just think about what you are doing [...]
There are days that are just pretty amazing.
Last month members of the Klontz clan got together from Ohio, Tennessee, Hawaii, New York and Illinois for an all-too-rare family reunion. It was held in Ohio, where my brother, sister, and I grew up. It was a sticky, hot August day; we had rented the [...]
Times are tough. The recession may be over on Wall Street, but no one has told Main Street. Budgets are still being trimmed, layoffs continue, and jobs are hard to come by. Many of us have been forced to downsize and are still struggling to meet our monthly expenses. All of this anxiety and stress [...]
I stopped at the local supermarket one morning to pick up some “essential” items. As I was going back to my car I heard an unbelievably loud racket coming from an old pick-up truck that had pulled in next to me. The fellow in the passenger’s seat obviously had his CD player, pulsing [...]
Margie and I live in Nashville, Tennessee. A very special place that we have come to like, maybe even love, a great deal. Home of country music. Home of one of the longest running live Saturday night radio shows of all time, the “Grand Ole Opry.” Home [...]
Perhaps you have seen the book Not Quite What I was Planning. Six Word Memoirs edited by Smith Magazine. In it, they propose that we see what would happen if we only used six words to describe different aspects of life. You can find examples at www.smithmag.net. Here are some:
About life: “Found great happiness in [...]
“Hey Dad, is it ok if I don’t play baseball next year?” my son Brad asked at the end of his freshman year in High School.
I was shocked. Not because he was indicating that he didn’t want to play baseball. I was very ok with that, but shocked because he felt like it [...]
As a young man, baseball was my passion. I managed to be able to make the team through a walk-on and play a little bit of college baseball. As a young teacher, I found myself coaching high school baseball. At a relatively young age I found myself being the head baseball coach. [...]
