Not so many years ago I believed my father, pictured to the right of my mother, had the strength of ten men. Now as he dwells in the golden age of his life I am amazed by how slowly he moves and yet he is just as strong as he as always been considering that his brother, sister and nephew have all died in the past sixty days. Age has made him slightly crotchety and maybe dulled a bit of his shine, but his slowed pace has created a gracefulness in his movements and an appreciation for moments that I often overlook in my rush to get everywhere. I appreciate and love my father and consider him a living repository of knowledge for my family and myself.

I hope I can be this strong should I ever see the age of eighty-one.

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Many of my family members are teachers, including both my parents, and many of my friends have grown up to be educators. From preschool and elementary school teachers all the way up to university professors.

Despite the bad rap teachers often get and the few who make things very bad for the rest in the court of public opinion, our teachers are some of the best assets we have. Period. Everyday, we entrust our children's learning to people who have dedicated themselves to empowering and enlightening others, often thanklessly. What a mighty weight it is that they work underneath.

This is National Teacher Appreciation Week. If you like, please use the comments here to #ThankATeacher for the work they've done in your life or the lives of your kids.

You might be wondering how else you might be able to say, "Thanks!" Well actually saying, "Thank you," to your children's teachers is a good place to start, or buy them gift cards for lunch or coffee or school supplies or anything else that let them know you care about and appreciate them as a person.

For the naysayers who might say, "Why thank them for what they are getting paid to do?" Well my thoughts are this: no one is thanking me for the work that I do, outside of maybe my boss, maybe. But no one is trusting me with their kids, either.

#ThankATeacher

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I recently was blessed with the opportunity to experience full-throttle, home theatre via the Sonos Playbar and its associated components.

This device is truly a work of art. Sleek, sturdy, heavy and like most art that is worthy of notice, a bit obtrusive, but in a good way. You will definitely enhance the flat, one-dimensional sound of your flat-panel television with the Playbar as a stand-alone speaker, but it plays even better with its friends. The SUB for the inevitable and often overlooked throaty lows that factor into most soundtracks and action sequences and two Play:1 speakers which operate as rear-channel satellites.

I shared this on my Facebook page and figured it is worth sharing here as well. On March 11 of this year, my dad's oldest brother passed away and I journeyed back to my roots in the Midwest to see him off and to comfort my dad and cousins. This past Sunday afternoon I received news that one of my dad's sisters who was at the service passed away. A mere nineteen days separated their passings. Which makes four relatives gone in a seven month span of time. In between this both of my children were hospitalized one week apart from each other for a combined six days. On Christmas Eve, my son thankfully walked away from a car accident that left my former car in pieces.

I'm not sharing for sympathy or likes or shares or accolades or condolences or anything. And I'm not going to be cliché and proclaim, "Life is too short." Rather I would encourage anyone reading this to dispense with the BS as I have (if you have BS anywhere in your life), embrace the ones you love today, tomorrow and everyday thereafter until you no longer are able. Live a rich life. Make rich connections. Enjoy the little things. Don't get caught up in nonsense and shut it down when you are the source of said nonsense.

And...be sure to embrace the rough times too so they make you better and stronger rather than render you bitter and useless.

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When it comes to conservation of resources I am the pioneer my house. I am Mr. Eco-Friendly. I am the head-recycler the head hyper-miler, and the head of "Who left the lights on?" "Why is this hot water running?" and so on.

As recently as this past Christmas I was trying to bring the house down to one car household after my son was involved in a car accident that left my vehicle totaled and in pieces. I was mentally drooling over the amount of gas we could save and how much we would reduce pollution. My wife shot this idea down with good reason. We have separate commutes and separate lives during the day. It would've never worked, at least not peacefully. After all, we're not in New York City anymore. So I moved on and instead of replacing my SUV with another SUV I purchased a smaller, sleeker, faster and considerably more fuel-efficient vehicle. Although I am thoroughly satisfied with my new car I often wonder what would be like to carpool as I travel alone back-and-forth to work with the exception of dropping my child off to school. Alternatively, I often look at the empty seats that keep me company on my commutes and think to myself, This is such a waste. It would be so cool if I could be in a one-seat vehicle.

Well the folks at Toyota who are paid to think about these things have come up with an amazingly simple solution to my quandary. Check out the video below



Want to learn more about the Toyota i-Road? Click here.

What your thoughts on cost-efficient and environmentally conscious commuting?

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Toyota. The opinions and text are all mine.

If 2013 was the Year of Restoration, 2014 is going to be the Year of Reparation. But I'll only be seeking reparations from myself. I'm seeking to repair all that the younger versions of me have done to create the current life I'm navigating daily. I'm so serious about this that I've got people helping me, everyone from a therapist to accountability partners.

A friend recently shared that he felt he was being punished for all his past mistakes. I heard him out, but I stopped him in his thinking and let him know although he may feel punished he is simply living out the consequences of his past decisions. And now is the time to fix the present to ensure the future.

Matthew McConaughey's 2014 Oscar acceptance speech has been making the rounds on the Internetz with commentary ranging from beautifully transparent to delirious, religion-soaked, self-aggrandizing rambling. Personally, I thought it was a sincere testimony to human frailty, humilty and majesty. That he could call out his thankfulness for the Grace that has been bestowed upon him, be driven to serve his children, then be in inexhaustible pursuit of the unattainable: you best future you (which means you're probably making a lot of other people's lives better along the way), is something to be thoughtfully considered and modeled in a world that, for a long time as of late seems consumed with nothing more than the self. What he could have said or should have said given the occasion is irrelevant. Whatever it was or was not as far as presentation is equally irrelevant. What he did say provided inspiration to the countless numbers of people who needed to hear that, right then and there in that moment.

I count myself as one of those many.



PS - there's nothing wrong with shouting out God, if that's what you believe.

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Is the institution of marriage designed to make you happy? Interesting question, right? One writer immediately comes to mind as an expert on this subject. If you take a moment to scroll through your mental slideshow, you will see imagery of marriage associated with happiness, no different that Coca-Cola is. Problem is, most married folks would argue down those images of happiness as anything from marketing fluff to fairy tales.

Happy marriages are populated by happy people. Framing it this way indicates that marriage is a construct within which two people operate/conduct their lives. So it is an operating platform rather than an emotion-stabilizer or edifier. In fact, I'll argue further that if you go into a marriage looking for it to make you happy, you will be sorely disappointed.

Tweet: Happy marriages are populated by happy people. A marriage by itself will never make you happy.

But enough about my thoughts on the matter. What do you think? Is marriage designed to make you happy?

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