The Pull of Black Apples

Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov (Ewen McGregor) tells a childhood story at a gathering of friends in the television series, A Gentleman in Moscow.

“Where I grew up, there was an old legend that, hidden deep in the forest, there was a tree with apples as black as coal. And if you could find this tree and eat its fruit, you could live your life anew.

“Begin the journey again... a tantalizing thought.

That Which Shall Not Be Named

Things are heating up – seriously. And it is time to talk about ‘that which shall not be named.’ 

No, it is not Lord Voldemort. We talk about him all the time now that the Horcruxes have all been found and destroyed. 

I do not say this lightly, but this topic is as scary to me as the ‘Unspeakable’ character was to Harry, Ron, and Hermoine.

What's a Father To Do

We all need help and I thought I’d look online to see what tidbits might be available. There’s a lot of advice out there for fathers and their children. Here are a few examples.

From the World

• Reading to your children regularly will bond you together and kickstart their imaginations.
• Be nice to your children because they are going to choose your nursing home.
• You’ll get 10x better results by elevating good behavior rather than punishing bad behavior, especially in children and animals.
• For the best results with your children, spend only half the money you think you should, but double the time with them.
• To keep young kids behaving on a car road trip, have a bag of their favorite candy and throw a piece out the window each time they misbehave.

Hammers, Bells, and Songs

A period of nostalgia has taken hold of me as last week's memory recap will continue with the words written today.  

The "Oldies but Goodies" lesson referred to gratitude with personal memory tidbits as its base. Today the goal is different, but the intro uses a similar format.

Oldies But Goodies

We live in a fast world. I’ve heard it said that computer speed and power have doubled every 2 years since the 1960s. Since I was just a kid, I can look back and see it. Take cars for example.

We used to sit overlooking a highway when visiting my Grandparents. We counted the number of cars that had air conditioning. One could tell because, at outside temperatures of 90 degrees, the windows were rolled up. We were in awe, especially since we didn’t even have a/c in the house. And, just a side note, they rolled those windows up with a crank.

I won’t go into the wide array of automobile features available today. You already know that the change is staggering.