Some are filled with history. Others have a unique charm. Some have that classic baseball appearance. A few are just plain quirky. There are even several that were used as the setting for memorable movies. Many are adorned with large statues commemorating some of the great athletes who competed there. On the walls of the upper deck hang reminders of championships won and the numbers of retired players who excelled during their time in the Big Leagues. The stadiums of the thirty Major League Baseball teams have drawn the attention of fans for generations. No small number of people have ..read more

Hymn For The Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. Thus while hate cannot be terminated, It can be ..read more

"Getting old is like climbing a mountain. you get a little out of breath, but the view is much better!" ~ Ingrid Bergman This story was posted on the Facebook page of one of my former students from Saint Augustine’s College in the Bahamas. Gregory Thompson is a meteorologist at the Bahamas Weather Service in Nassau and a deacon in his church. An Airbus 380 was on its way across the Atlantic. It flew consistently at 800 km/h at 30,000 feet. Suddenly, a Eurofighter with a Tempo Mach 2 appeared. The pilot of the fighter jet slowed down and flew alongside the Airbus. He greeted the pilot of the ..read more

“Endings are not only part of life; they are a requirement for living and thriving, professionally and personally. Being alive requires that we sometimes kill things off in which we were once invested.” Henry Cloud Necessary Endings It’s been almost sixteen years since I created this Attitude of Gratitude blog site. During this time, I have written and posted more than 2,000 articles, mostly focused on the theme of gratitude. A few years ago, I acknowledged to myself that I had gotten a bit distracted on a number of posts, mostly pieces I wrote related to my workplace experiences. Those pos ..read more

  It’s official. Summer has arrived, and with it, an afternoon temperature of 100º in West San José today. I’m hoping this is not a foreshadowing of what’s to come in the next three months. An occasional day or two of near-100º temps is to be expected each year, so, at this point, I’m not alarmed. It does seem to me, however, that, in recent years, each summer seems to be a bit warmer than the previous one. Time will tell. Despite the unusually warm weather today, I am grateful that summer has arrived. Not surprisingly, during my years in education, first as a student, then as a teacher ..read more

National Gratitude Month “Gratitude is the single most important ingredient to living a successful and fulfilling life.” ~ Jack Canfield Ah, November… sweet November… my favorite month of the year. Those who know me might assume that June would be my favorite month, as it is in the month of June that we celebrate my birthday, Kathy’s birthday, our anniversary, and, during the years I was teaching, the beginning of summer break. I do like the month of June. Very much so, in fact. But there is something about November that’s like putting a warm blanket on the bed on a cold winter night.  Y ..read more

You Are Not Alone   It's alright to be discombobulated. It's ok to live in the shambles where everything is blown apart.   Those who live lives of firm certainty cannot know transformation. Fundamentalism is a head game of our self-control.   Until your life has been torn apart as you stand on the edge of oblivion Until our control falls apart into the chaos of unknowing Until our ego melts and burns in the cauldrons of life Until we have no whisper of hope left within us as we stand naked and broken our molecules on the cusp of being unmade We cannot know in every cell of our ..read more

  At 1:15 P.M. on Tuesday, April 24, 1984, I was enjoying lunch with a colleague in the main dining room, just off the lobby at the Red Lion Hotel in San José. We were sitting at a table directly below a large glass dome. It was at that moment that an earthquake of Richter magnitude 6.2 struck near Mount Hamilton, about ten miles east of San José. There was no question from the outset that it was a significant temblor. My colleague literally freaked out, bolted from the table, and ran out the restaurant door. I quickly looked up and realized that she had the right idea. At 5:04 P.M. on T ..read more

I spent my birthday in San Francisco last weekend attending a couple of social activities and two book signing events for my latest book, The Ambassador of 38th Avenue. So yesterday, Kathy and I met up with our three boys and their families for a belated birthday lunch at The Garret Station in Los Gatos. We had originally planned on having a barbecue at our home, but the hot weather convinced us that it would be best to move the celebration to an air conditioned venue. It was a good call. Finding the perfect birthday gift for an older person can be a challenge. What do you get for someone wh ..read more

S.I. vs Bellarmine - September 23, 2022 A high school football game can generate some vivid memories. On June 3, 1972, I graduated from high school and the next day, I celebrated my 18th birthday. Significant as those events were for me, they paled in comparison to the chapter of my life which began on August 25, 1972. That’s the day I moved out of my childhood home on 38th Avenue in San Francisco and took up residence in San José. My new home was a dormitory. One might rightly expect that it was a college dorm, but it wasn’t. I had been hired to work as a “prefect” in the student dormitory ..read more