Tonight is Christmas Eve and most of us are shopping, anticipating, or trying to complete whatever before year end. Here I am at my dining room table writing a blog. For your sake, and mine, I’ll make it short.
I have an idea for a single gift that will cost you nothing, is already gift wrapped, and will bring joy to you and to hundreds of others for the eight remaining days this year, and the 365 days available in 2014.
Give the gift of yourself.
Read MoreI have nine children. Three are from my first marriage, two stepsons from my second marriage, and three daughters from my third marriage. (My final marriage, as Daveen would say.) For those few of you who check the numbers like I do, I add one foster child who graduated with honors from Tufts University.
They range in age from 26 to 51. Each has graduated from college. They have earned twelve graduate degrees among them. And every single one was once seven years old, as well as sixteen years old — just like you and me (unless you’re now younger than sixteen – but even so, there is already an adult blossoming inside of you).
I mention all of this not to brag, though I am extremely proud of each of my children, but to point out that every one was once an adult in waiting. I never spanked a single child. I never “grounded” a child. What I did was to consistently expect responsible behavior.
Read MoreI woke up at 6:32 this morning screaming at my wife, “When does the f***ing ship leave!!!!!”
We were not on a ship. We were in a hotel room. A few mornings before, I woke up Daveen by kicking her legs. Another nightmare, something about my being interviewed for People Tools and not remembering a single fact about my book.
In this morning’s edition my extended family had just returned from our present vacation, but somehow ended up in Seattle, scheduled to leave at any moment on a cruise. Our luggage lay scattered in a motel room with a large door at one end for truck access, but we were on the ship where I was trying to find out what time it was leaving.
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