Forgiveness does not change the past…

…but it does enlarge the future.

- Mary Karen Reed’s last words in her journal entry before her death at the Virginia Tech shooting.

I saw this film today and was moved. May we all take Mary’s last words to heart.

You CAN polish a turd, but why would you want to?

Okay, the title is a little crass. Crass, but true.

Years ago I was working on fixing a mistake in a recording project. The original track the artist put down simply wasn’t very good, and as the producer, I missed it…

A day in April, 1968.

“Who is Martin Luther King?”

It was an innocent question to the mother of an inquisitive 7 year-old. While she continued to make the bed, she patiently explained the character of the man. She spoke of his peaceful, non-violent demonstrations, of his inspirational…

“I don’t get the respect I deserve!”

Really?

In this age of “don’t disrespect me!”, I have thought about this statement often. In fact, a few of us were talking about it over lunch the other day.

What Rod Carew taught me…

When the big white car pulled up in front of our townhouse, I couldn’t have imagined how the moments that followed would affect my life.

I was 10 years old and we had just moved to Minneapolis. I was always a huge baseball fan. As an 8 year old, I was…

Why You Should Understand Your Weaknesses — Michael Hyatt

Occasionally I come across a blog post that I think is important enough to republish. While the ideas contained in this blog post are widely known, I still see leaders, good leaders, who insist on trying being experts in…

The Luthier’s Purpose

For over two years I had pined for it, asked for it, and maybe even begged for it, so when my parents gave me a guitar for my 21st birthday, I couldn’t have been happier. I remember gently removing it from its case and admiring its beauty. The grain of the wood, the smooth feel of the neck…

In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king…

Last summer, my son and I took the opportunity to enjoy a beautiful day on the golf course. Our twosome was joined by 2 40-something African American men. Both were the size of professional athletes and, to my shame, I naturally fell…

Learning the Jewish Work Ethic

One of my great joys as a kid (and later as an adult) was to take long walks with my grandfather and listen to him tell stories of his youth. Grandpa was born in 1904….an era of wooden sidewalks, sarsaparilla, and that loud new thing spewing black smoke….the automobile…

Math, music and people.

12 tones, mathematically precise.

When Johann Sebastian Bach first composed The Well Tempered Clavier, he had no idea the influence these works would have. By establishing tuning requirements for each note, he made it possible for compositions to be played in a…