I was appreciating myself and congratulating me for taking a moment to reflect on the day and how much I had valued and enjoyed my afternoon. While I was looking in the mirror and acknowledging myself I realized that while I was appreciating myself no one else was – aside from the guy in the mirror. I wondered if I would keep my afternoon to myself or share it and maybe get some acknowledgement from someone else. I admit it. I like to be appreciated. By myself and others. If

My wife teaches sociology and for the last several years she has given the same assignment to her class. They must choose one form of technology that is a significant part of their life – phone is usually the top choice – and go without it for a long enough period of time in order to feel the effects of not having it. Then they write about the process and what they experienced. Students also need to let significant people know they will be offline so they won't worry if they

Last week I wrote about new words that had come into being in 2017. Broflake and youthquake caught my attention. As we add news words to our vocabulary, I got to thinking about words that have gone out of circulation. Over the years we have seen policemen become police officers, firemen fire fighters, and mailmen mail carriers. Sometimes we hear people use these older reference, but bit by bit these sexist words are becoming extinct. How we refer to people as well as how we

How's your vocabulary? Mine isn't what it used to be. These days I find I'm searching for some word that used to come pretty easily to me, but now it can pop up in a new form. Instead of my mind remembering the correct term, I add or delete some syllables, change things around so listeners have a sense of what I am saying even if they don't quite recognize the word. Sometimes those neologisms capture the essence of something. Other times they earn raised eyebrows. Regardless