I Lost a Lung to Cancer. Here is How I Rebuilt My Body with Simple Food and Daily Movement
If you’ve been following my cancer journey for any length of time, you know that exercise and nutrition play leading roles in my rebuild. Some might call it a diet. But that word makes me think of a trend, and a trend isn’t what I’m talking about. Anyone…
The Dangerous Trap of “Always Wanting More” (And Why You Can’t Stop Chasing It)
Some days I can’t wait to get out of bed and get moving. Moving toward what? Nothing in particular. But staying still means I’m boring, doesn’t it? Surely the next best thing is just over the hill or beyond that rainbow over there. What rainbow, you ask?…
The Dangerous Lie of “That’s Just How I Am” (And How to Break Old Habits)
When the work quiets and we have a moment to ourselves, old habits sometimes stir. They lie low in the grass, just beyond our sight, waiting for a familiar thought to bring us close. Following that thought home feels natural. We lived there a long time.…
AI Isn’t Evil, Humans Just Have a New Tool: Why You Should Ignore the Latest Tech Panic
Just when I thought the latest round of “the sky is falling” had begun to wind down, somebody found a fresh box of matches. Artificial intelligence is evil, they tell me. To demonstrate this, they have thoughtfully supplied an…
Appalachian Folk Remedies, Jalapeño Cold Cures, and the Hilarious Mystery of How I Survived Childhood
I came home from work with a nose that had apparently decided to irrigate East Texas. After some sleep, I began considering my grandmother’s ten-minute cold cure: jalapeño, onion, and thyme, boiled briefly and left to steep before being served as broth…
Organic vs. Conventional Produce: The Truth About Pesticides, Nutrition, and Parent Guilt
Somewhere along the way, buying vegetables became an examination of character. A mom picks up ordinary carrots, looks at the organic ones beside them, and wonders whether saving a few dollars means letting her children down. Meanwhile, Dad is calculating…
Faith Beyond the Thunder: Why Picking Up the Hammer Is Sacred Work
“From dust you came, and to dust you will return.” For years I heard that mostly as a sentence about endings. Lately, I hear something else in it. Dust is ordinary. Soil. Stone. Wood. Water. Bread. Hands. Maybe that is why so much of life is ordinary…
The Hilarious Joy of Language: Dangling Participles, Misplaced Modifiers, and Neobombeckianism
I have recently developed an interest in grammar. There. I said it. At my age, I suppose there are worse things a fellow could become interested in. I could start collecting porcelain frogs, arguing with the television, or wearing socks with sandals.…
The Bureau of Aging Has a Sense of Humor: Where Did All My Hair Go?
There comes a point in a man’s life when the hair on his head apparently receives a government relocation order. It does not disappear. It transfers. Some of it moves south into the eyebrows, where it immediately abandons all respect for zoning laws. One…
Outrage Travels Fast, Context Takes Time: Why the Internet’s Scariest Claims Are Half-True
There are certain words on the internet that can make a man sit upright before he has even finished his coffee: Congress, corporations, eminent domain, profit. Put all four in the same sentence and you hardly need punctuation. The blood pressure will…