This coming weekend, the Kenyon community will be celebrating—on his birthday—a legend whom we lost this past July—Tom Stamp. Formally, he was the retired college historian and keeper of Kenyoniana (a word invented by him to mean caretaker of Kenyon artifacts), as well as the former head of the Office of Public Affairs, as it […]
Laughter & Love: Remembering my sister, Shelly
Today, December 11th, marks ten years since we lost my sister, Shelly, to colon cancer at the age of 39. She bravely chronicled her cancer journey on her blog. We miss her terribly. I don’t think I have it in me to try to capture again how much she means to me, so in lieu […]
The Great eBay Junk-it
The pandemic nesting phenomenon was widely discussed and I agree that it was the perfect opportunity to do something about the overwhelming accumulation of things in our basement. You see, when two people don’t marry until well into their adulthood, each brings to their new shared home one or two (or three) of everything—and a […]
Remembering Kay Locke
The following remembrance was given at a memorial service for Kay Locke at Rosse Hall on the campus of Kenyon College on May 26, 2023. Over 120 past members of the Kenyon College Chamber Singers were in attendance and performed. Returning to Kenyon, two years after graduating, I found myself sitting at my sister’s Baccalaureate […]
Thinking Again: Big 80s Energy
It’s a miracle that the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) was ever made. Its record high price tag at the time was a whopping $70 million (more than double that in today’s dollars). It also featured a record-breaking number of credits at the end of the film—lasting more than ten minutes—a testament to the […]
The Blue Badge of Courage
When my sister Laura was quite young she told us her dream was to one day get a job as a “puppy holder.” That’s great work if you can find it. For my young self, the dream was getting a job at an amusement park. So many weekends of my childhood were spent down the […]
Cast the Ripple
Imagine being struck by the thunderous realization that you are uniquely positioned to create significant good in this world—the kind of good that could affect thousands and ripple positively for generations. Looking around, you notice that no one else is stepping up. Doing so would surely be difficult. You would be swimming upstream against history, […]
The Art of Understanding
Thomas Conlin, Grammy Award-winning conductor of symphonies and operas, was gearing up to conduct the West Virginia Symphony on tour when he was contacted by a local television station requesting a live interview in advance of the concert. The interview had been assigned to a somewhat green new member of the station staff who was […]
Railing for a Cause
Have you ever stopped to consider just how dangerous stairs can be? If you haven’t, you’ve surely had the good fortune not to have witnessed or taken part in any number of horrifying incidents involving stairs. I truly hope that’s been the case for you. For me, this has not been the case. I suppose […]
Commence Blogging…
I always feared that starting a blog without a firm sense of purpose for doing so might seem indulgent. And then 2020 happened. For me, being largely sequestered from family and friends during this odd era of disruption has led to much reflection and I’ve come to realize that there are many stories that should […]