A Beacon of Light

“Cigarette smoking is clearly identified as the chief, preventable cause of death in our society.” C. Everett Koop I’m not a smoker. I’ve never been a smoker. And yes, this is America, so one has the right to smoke if they wish, right? When, however, one’s choice to smoke infringes upon the rights of a…

“A sense of shame is not a bad moral compass.”  Colin Powell We know the difference between right and wrong. Even when we choose to do something we know we should not do, and even though we may create all sorts of ways to justify what we’re doing, we know it’s wrong. This is because…

“If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” Meister Eckhart It was an interesting Facebook post, and it immediately caught my attention. Someone I know only through Facebook, but someone I would definitely like to know in real life, posted the following statement: “I’m still ‘foolish…

“Be happy, not because everything is good, but because you can see the good side of everything.”  Helen Barry There are times when life is not easy. Some days (or weeks, or months) can be difficult for us. We have to remind ourselves that to experience and truly appreciate happiness in life, we must endure…

“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.” William Shakespeare I hate being late. For anything! I’m not exactly sure where or when I got the punctuality bug, but I definitely got it. It’s woven into the fabric of who I am, and it’s been there for as long as I can remember. The…

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” Robert Louis Stevenson Twenty-five years ago today, I found myself a stranger in a strange land. With a small group of my students, I visited Nagasaki, Japan — the first of fourteen visits to Japan between 1998 and 2014. We were there…

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.”  Robert Louis Stevenson I invite and encourage you to pause… and take a few minutes to reflect on the people in your life who have been kind to you. Sadly, it seems so much easier for us to remember…

“Live your life like a lighthouse and be a beacon of hope to others.”  Pat Schwallie-Giddis I read the quote above and realized I selected the wrong name for this blog site. A Beacon of Light, yes, but far more importantly, I would like my writing to provide a beacon of hope to others. I’ve…

“There is nothing permanent except change.”  Heraclitus Kathy and I moved into our West San José home in October 1986. At the time, we’d been married for fifteen months and had a five-month-old son, after whose birth we quickly outgrew our modest Santa Clara home on Lincoln Street. Neither Kathy nor I were exceptionally gifted…

“I don’t mind a reasonable amount of trouble.” Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon) Anyone born and raised in San Francisco, or who had ancestors living in The City from the mid-1930’s through the turbulent ’60’s, will more than likely find the book I finished reading last night to be of tremendous interest. Co-authored by Glenn…