Oldest Item?

What’s the oldest thing you own that you still use daily? I’m a bit baffled by this prompt. I don’t think anything I have fits this category. As I look back on my life I think of it as several lifetimes. Before College, The College Years, Post-Graduate, Career, and now Retirement. And having moved physicallyContinue reading “Oldest Item?”

Summer Better Than Others

What is your favorite season of year? Why? Of the seasons, I prefer summer for a variety of reasons. We’ll get to those reasons in a moment, but let’s look at the cons of the others. Winter has cold and often snow. Although I did some sledding as a child, this was not as fulfillingContinue reading “Summer Better Than Others”

Luxury!?

What’s the one luxury you can’t live without? An odd prompt. Once again, I am pressed to define something before I can comment on it. To me, a luxury is something that one doesn’t need but possesses to enjoy. Luxuries are those things that one can win on a game show. I don’t need aContinue reading “Luxury!?”

Directing. Plain and Simple.

What are you good at? Today’s prompt asks: “What are you good at?” And the extremely obvious answer is: directing in the theatre. I’ve always had a knack for it. When I am doing it, I reach that flow state they talk about, and time simultaneously speeds up and stops. I am fully focused onContinue reading “Directing. Plain and Simple.”

Having It All

What does “having it all” mean to you? Is it attainable? Is “having it all” attainable? Well, first, I think it means success in career and a happy home life, and checking off all the boxes on the bucket list. Incidentally, does anyone know where the term “bucket list” came from? I know there wasContinue reading “Having It All”

Legacy

What is the legacy you want to leave behind? Before my retirement, several people got together to throw me a surprise retirement party before the Saturday performance of my last show on campus. In attendance were students from my 17 years at the campus, representing a wide range of productions. Several of them had incredibleContinue reading “Legacy”

Career Plans?

What is your career plan? This is an amusing little prompt for a retired person. But judging from how people reacted when I attended commencement, they must equate retired with dead. In fact, when people asked me what I was doing there, I would say, “I’m retired, not dead!” (And then I’d say I wasContinue reading “Career Plans?”

Job? What Job?

What’s a job you would like to do for just one day? I recently retired from academia after 31 years of teaching. I found my life as a university professor fulfilling overall, with minor exceptions for policy changes that entered into the equation over the years, and for a decline in both enrollments and studentContinue reading “Job? What Job?”

Advice?

List the people you admire and look to for advice… This is a difficult prompt. “List the people you admire and look to for advice?” Well… That seems to be two different categories. There are a lot of people I admire, but I don’t have access for communication. Many are dead; Charlie Chaplin, Joseph Campbell,Continue reading “Advice?”

Quote Me!

Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often? Thinking about quotations I live by, I come up with three: from Goethe, from life, and from me. The first comes from Goethe’s Faust. I’ve often commented on how I find that work inspiring. Even in retirement, I find myself unableContinue reading “Quote Me!”