I stormed up to my bigger and stronger teammate and told him that he may have had an out-of-this-world batting swing and ranked as one of the best players on our baseball team, but he should stop bullying everyone. The rest of us didn’t appreciate his behavior. My teammates, seeing my bravery and courage, of …
Will you be my Valentine?
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, one of my coworkers plans to surprise his girlfriend by taking her to an expensive French restaurant that she has been dying to visit for the past year. He made the reservations on the sly a few months ago and he’s kept it top secret. The woman sitting next to me …
Moving past new-parent jitters
My wife rubbed the edge of her index fingertip along the top edge and leaned over to peek inside. She looked like she was out on a car lot comparing new cars—blue trim on this one, black on that one. Instead of cars, though, we were walking aimlessly through a local store comparing baby cribs. …
Signs, sign, everywhere a sign
One sign gave an ominous warning, “Do not cross. Thank you.” Another advertised a national weight loss program. Still another promoted a new video streaming service. Finally two more announced a train crossing and “Road Work Ahead.” I felt like the Aerosmith song was playing itself out in front of me: “Sign, sign, everywhere a …
And a child shall lead them
My daughter loves hanging out with her friends. She also enjoys reading or relaxing with our dog Nittany. Likewise, my oldest son loves to lift weights and watch action movies. Over the past twelve months, I’ve watched as both have given up things they love and stepped out of their comfort zones to tackle new …
Mean girls
The young woman’s eyes gave away her feelings. Two other college-age women approached her and set up shop on the elliptical trainer right next to her. They acknowledged each other like they knew other and the two women said something that I couldn’t hear. The woman who had been working out smiled, but her eyes …
The Ice Queen
The woman stood in the middle of the ice rink, one toe up on the edge of the skate, and watched over the rink like a queen inspecting her staff or a hardened general watching over a battlefield. The woman wore a matching blue jacket and pants and a white headband that kept her hair …
Cold, hard cash
As a kid, I used to save my pennies in a glass Teddy Bear bank. Later I moved onto a miniature wooden barrel that my parents had picked up at a local bank. You’d turn the barrel up on one end and on the bottom was a plug that you would pull out to get …
One man’s dream
On a hot August day in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a short 17-minute speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial calling for civil and economic rights and an end to racism. He painted a picture of a vibrant, new world. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of …
Erasing the past
I hesitated. I looked at my cell phone again. The "erase" button jumped off the screen. At my wife's urging, I recently purchased a new phone and was getting ready to trade in my old one. To protect my information, I needed to erase everything and return the phone to its original factory settings. In …
