One of my favorite questions to ask when meeting new acquaintances - both personal and professional - is "How did you and your spouse meet"?  It's a question to which folks always have an answer and about which they like to share.  When both spouses are present, it's fun to see the similarities in what they remember and to compare "both sides of the story".  It's a conversation which can go on for hours. With...

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I love October and poetry both.  While I don't get to indulge in the poetry realm as much as I'd like (although I believe I'm going to change that now that I have an audience with whom to share that affinity), October's 'bright blue weather" has been especially vibrant this year, by virtue of both weather and an especially gorgeous showing of fall foliage.  While I haven't memorized this poem by Helen Hunt Jackson (as...

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As the plunder and profits of    failed politics fades another day into the anonymity    of wealth, power, and privilege, I see before me    in the evening twilight two people talking.    Edging closer, I hear one    confide to the other -   "Today I felt the frustration,    uncertainty and despair of this American Moment.   Today, I lived the hardship,    misery and stress of a proud industrious people   ...

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As a footnote to my previous post, Patriotic Teaching Moments, Part 1, and in honor of the 200th anniversary of Francis Scott Key's penning of The Star Spangled Banner, I thought I'd give a bit of the history of our National Anthem and provide the "lost verses" ... as information and for reflection. Francis Scott Key actually penned the poem that would become our National Anthem on September 13, 1814.  It was the War of...

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"The golden rod is yellow; The corn is turning brown; The trees in apple orchards With fruit are bending down." Fall is here, and as I look out the window and see shades of vibrant red and umber encroaching on green canopies and replacing the greens of summer, I instantly start mouthing the words of Helen Hunt Jackson's poem:  September.  I do this every year ... I don't think I've missed doing it for one...

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