The world is often divided into two types of people: the dreamers and the realists. Two extremes: one high up in the clouds, the other firmly planted on planet earth. But maybe we should add a third category, a no-man’s land, somewhere in between.

One day a beautiful girl stumbles into your castle. She’s for sure the answer to all your problems—the only slight potential issue is, she hates you.

May 25th, 2001, Erik Weihenmayer became the first blind man to summit Mount Everest.

Six months later the twin towers fell in one of the greatest acts of terrorism on our country. Almost instinctively, NFL star Pat Tillman sacrificed his career and enlisted in the Army.

If you don’t do your job, you won’t let yourself enjoy anything ever again, no matter how much money you have saved away.

When we got gifts as kids, we thought we could do whatever we wanted to with them. It wasn’t until later on that we learned that gifts don’t come without strings attached.

There is a hidden gem in Columbus, Georgia, at Fort Benning. It is a museum called the National Infantry Museum, and it looks like it. 

When we talk about retirement, there are two parts of that conversation. One is the plan, how it is going to be funded, and the second is about timing. If we can answer those two questions, retirement should be a walk in the park.

There once was a young prince who had everything his heart could desire, but he wasn’t happy. And then one day an evil witch came into the castle and, through her dark magic, took it all away and left him with nothing.

Louis Armstrong is on stage with his band—the Creole Jazz Band out of New Orleans—and he’s scatting into the microphone, trumpet in his left hand and a cocktail in his right, living his dream. Only tonight he’s not in New Orleans; on the front row is Al Capone.

New Years’ is overrun with gurus and tips and hacks—advice is everywhere. We are only a set of resolutions away from becoming the person we’ve always wanted to be.

Typically, fairy tales and legends begin in the middle of the story, starting with, “Once upon a time….” The Christmas story isn’t that way.

November 6, 2019 I joined The Rotary Club of Valdosta.

“You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give.” This quote is typically attributed to Winston Churchill, but sources say it became popular in a 2005 Lockheed Martin TV commercial.

Meg Ryan, in the movie ”You’ve Got Mail”, finds herself hoping for a miracle. She’s in the wrong checkout line, the cash-only line, and she has no cash. And the clerk isn’t budging.

Pringles just released a limited-edition, seasonal tube of chips. It’s actually an entire Thanksgiving meal-replacement, with chips flavored as turkey, chicken, duck, and even cranberry sauce and stuffing, and—just imagine!—pumpkin pie, so you can combine flavors to your heart’s content.

“This time it’s different.”

Famous last words.

As long as it does the job well, I don’t care who manufactures the filing cabinet in my office. I bought it to hold documents, not organize them or write them for me. It’s not a service (someone doing work for you), it’s a commodity (a tool to do the work yourself).

There are no guarantees in life, but there are some things we can be pretty sure of: the sun will rise tomorrow, Trump is going to tweet, Valdosta is going to play football. But something could happen. The sun could fall out of the sky, Trump could get a thumb cramp, Valdosta could take up badminton.

Two weeks ago we muscled past the impulse to run out of the room at the sound of the words “meaning of life”, and last week we looked at the attitude required to live a meaningful life—namely, gratitude. This week we will see the action of the meaning of life, the way meaning and purpose changes our lives.

Last week we looked at the reason for this pursuit. To summarize, the meaning of life provides us with the answer to the question of why—why work, why love, why life—and it’s this answer that gives our life meaningful purpose.