a blog by John P. Schuster
Taking ourselves out of flow and into anxiety The couch is ready for me—the remote just lying there ready for TV action. I can go watch a game, surf some channels, and chill out. I also have a tough book to read and a paper to write and maybe, instead of surfing and zoning out, I will put my head into this taxing book, then sit at a computer and try to write something coherent[…]
Read moreEvery day we take another step or two, mostly forward, and sometimes sideways, or back. We move into the job more completely, or less so. Into our marriage in a new way, or maybe not. Or move into an encore career, sad to let go of the big ol’ career, or perhaps relieved. We keep moving, aligning as many parts of our poly-phrenic, many-sided selves (schizophrenic is too simple—we are way more than just two)[…]
Read moreA few years back, a group with a funky name, Five for Fighting, wrote a piano-based chart topper, 100 Years to Live. The lead singer starts, almost in falsetto: “I’m 15 for a-a moment, caught in between 10 and 20…” Compelling lyrics pull us ahead over the arc of our lives. I can’t get the song out of my head right now, and my new guitar coach, John May, is helping me with the voicings[…]
Read moreI had the privilege of introducing Pam McLean, president of the Hudson Institute, at their annual conference last month when I was MCing. People really loved this quote I used to introduce her, one from James Michener. Pam is a true master at living, so I thought it was appropriate. Masters in the Art of Living draw no distinction between their work and their play, their labor and their leisure their mind and the body[…]
Read morePatricia and I just had an extraordinary experience with prison inmate hospice workers. Oprah has done a powerful documentary on the hospice workers in Angola prison in Louisiana, the largest maximum security prison in the US. The inmates have been educated to provide hospice care for dying inmates (5000, and most will die there—no parole for life sentences in five states). It is redemptive work. Some say the last time they saw someone die is the[…]
Read moreI went snowboarding for about the 18th time in 14 years a few weeks ago. When 50, on a bit of a lark, I learned how to snow board. I was already too old to do this. The young boarders call any boarder over 50 “a gray on a tray.” That was me. I so loved it. The joy of swooshing down the huge, miles-long slopes in Utah or Colorado. The bracing air, the snow[…]
Read moreA good friend of mine, Joy Leach, tells the story of a childhood memory that has shaped her life as a working mom and wife. Her Dad, every week, would pull out seven one-dollar bills and give them to her mom, and this was her allowance for the week. They were not in poverty, though in the ’50s wealth levels were nowhere near today’s. For Joy, traveling and doing her work as a happily married[…]
Read moreWhen we look at the night sky we feel small in the Grand Scheme. When we help someone with a problem, provide a useful insight, or give a hug of understanding that relieves some pain, we feel worthwhile and know we are here for a reason. What a dichotomy we hold, so tiny and insignificant and so significant! Golda Meir, former Israeli prime minister, apparently carried two stones with her. One said, “For me the[…]
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