LATEST BLOG POSTS

Look at the start of this sign I saw at Penn’s Landing after my fundraising bike ride: “African people, first enslaved by the Dutch and Swedes, . . . “. Is there some way to read that sentence that reflects history? Slavery has existed in many cultures since before Holland and Sweden existed, including Africa. Quoting Wikipedia’s Slavery in Africa page, slavery in Africa predates the existence of Holland and[…] Keep reading →

Ambrose and I start by reviewing his commitment. After a bit, as best I can tell, we talked past each other. Every now and then, the Spodek Method doesn’t resonate and this conversation looks like one of them. His description of how he sees the world and my read don’t seem to overlap. I suspect he felt I didn’t understand him or his world. I read him as guarded, not[…] Keep reading →

I rode my bike from New York to Philadelphia over the weekend and visited my sledding hill this morning. Before the pictures below, you can click to compare Tommy’s Hill in March, less verdant. Here’s a video from last November: My sledding hill in May And below is my sledding hill in May. You’ll notice I couldn’t reach the creek at the bottom as it was marshy from Saturday’s rain.[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday I wrote Equal parts misery and glory: today’s ride from New York to Princeton. Today: puffy white clouds and blue skies. It started chilly and foggy but warmed up to make yesterday’s ride worth it, like when the home team is down and scores to come-from-behind and win in the final moments. Still lots of plastic packaging that nobody seemed to care about. Today we rode about 55 miles,[…] Keep reading →

The skies opened up on us about halfway through today’s fundraising bike ride from New York to Princeton, helping create a bike path from Maine to Florida. The normally best part of the ride, along old canals that are now lush and verdant, was thirty miles through mud in near-bone-chilling cold. I can’t say I was miserable since once I was out, I’d prefer riding in that cold mud to[…] Keep reading →

Someone being addicted rarely hurts themselves first. Addiction usually hurts the people around the addicted person first and most. One of the hardest parts of recognizing addiction all around is seeing it in people you love, hearing them rationalize and justify hurting people for their pleasure, comfort, and convenience. Someone in my family flew to a birthday party of someone who lives a few miles from her. Instead of a[…] Keep reading →

Okay, I’m speaking a bit tongue-in-cheek because I know most people think what they do doesn’t matter and imagine touching anyone else’s litter risks keeling over and dying, or maybe gangrene and covid-19. People claim to be germaphobes and the like to excuse their inaction. But I know there’s no risk if you just avoid dangerous things, which still leaves an infinite amount to pick up, so I discount their[…] Keep reading →