About
For more than 20 years, I’ve had an inner voice that’s whispered, cajoled, nudged, and sometimes even nagged at me to share the memories of lessons learned, mental maps, musings and questions, reflections and stories that have brought me here, to this point in my life, past my prime, yet still feeling vibrant, and wanting to remain relevant to those who love me. But ‘Is what I have to share worth writing?’, I’ve repeatedly asked of my inner voice. And the response that comes back every time is, ‘Get out of your own way. Just write.’
And so I succumb to that inner voice, and begin. When I write, the audience in my mind’s eye is my children, but of course, anyone who wants to come along is welcome. My hope is that my posts will have a positive impact on whoever my readers may be, including you, perhaps to inspire, to be a catalyst to discover something meaningful in your own life, or maybe to see from a different perspective something you’ve carried for a long time. At a minimum, I’d like to think that what I write will serve to heighten the awareness of my readers, and if so moved, to share their stories, either on this forum, or in their own way with their own audience.
Bio
I'm a native Michigander, born in Dearborn in 1957. I was blessed to be raised in loving household, with two parents and two older sisters, and enjoyed a stereotypical Baby Boomer upbringing. It was idyllic, like living in The Wonder Years. My memories are less of school and homework, and more of playing hide and seek with friends in backyards, and pick up baseball games on playgrounds till we were called in for dinner, after which we'd tune in to early classics on black and white TV before going to bed till the next day, when we'd do it all over again.
My first dose of real life, and my first and most memorable defining moment was when my father died in December, 1972. It was just past my 15th birthday and everything changed, mainly from being less fun to more serious. I graduated from high school early, in January of my senior year, then went off to Michigan State University at age 17. In hindsight, I wish I'd take school more seriously, but I didn't, so my college experience was more about growing up than preparing myself for a particular career path.
My first real job was writing for an internal corporate publication for Chevy dealers. I lived in Dallas and traveled the southeast visiting dealers and writing about their sales promotions. Later, I moved to Minneapolis to be near my college girlfriend who'd gone there for graduate school. There, in July of 1980, I went to work as a writer of product and sales training programs for a company called Investors Diversified Services. This turned out to be serendipitous, as later than year Ronald Reagan was elected president, the stock market entered a prolonged raging bull market, and American Express bought IDS. During this time, I worked hard and was recognized for it, and I was blessed to have several mentors who influenced my career. In short, the planets aligned for a somewhat meteoric career path.