So here I am…a man who never had younger siblings, a man without a child, a man who’s never changed a diaper and gets paranoid around babies…and I’m having lunch with a dear friend and meeting her five-month old son.  I said the standard things — “he’s so cute,” “what a good baby,” “are you…

Accepting her Golden Globe statuette for her performance in “Les Misérables,” Anne Hathaway humbly thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press Association “for this lovely blunt object, that I will forever use as a weapon against my self-doubt.”  A humble admission of her truth from this graceful, poised movie star. As writers, we are just like Hathaway…

Like a giant, motorized float, gratitude is paraded out and cheered at Thanksgiving, its ultimate holiday.  Many acknowledge what they are grateful for, even announcing it while sitting at a table with family, friends and a sumptuous feast, truly a gratitude-inducing event.  This continues into the year-end holidays, again around food, but with the addition…

“I’ll revise the first chapter just once more, polish it up, then I’ll head into the next chapter,” she said with the bravado of certain finality. I tilted my head and inhaled deeply.  “Consider accepting the win and moving on.” “What win?  Why?” she asked, scrunching up her face. “Because you have a strong foundation…

Friday morning before dawn, my mother’s life came to a peaceful end after a 12-year struggle with Parkinson’s Disease. “Dad,” I said on Saturday evening after the visitation as we sat in his home blankly watching TV.  “The minister asked if we wanted to prepare something for her eulogy.”  I mentioned I’d talked to my…