Posted on

Left Out in the Freezing Sun, We Lost Our Seasons

Growing up in the Midwest, there were absolute seasons.  When the calendar flipped from Summer to Autumn, the weather and temperatures would change accordingly.  You knew you had a good couple of good months of cool, calm, “football weather” before the Winter doldrums would come knocking on your door with wind, sleet, snow and ice and what felt like an eternal darkness.

Today, it appears global warming has changed our seasonal expectations, and that is a comprehensively sad fact. My FedEx guy, sweating in the humid heat of the Autumn one day and freezing in the wintry Autumn wind the next, said it best: “We’ve lost our seasons.”

Continue reading → Left Out in the Freezing Sun, We Lost Our Seasons

Posted on

Is a FedEx Waybill a Handshake or a Promise?

On January 14, 1998 I wrote a seminal article for GO INSIDE Magazine called — The Decline & Fall of FedEx — and in the 12 years since its original publication, that FedEx piece has generated more positive email than anything else I’ve ever written.  Having one article watched so much by so may people is both pleasing and numbing.

Continue reading → Is a FedEx Waybill a Handshake or a Promise?

Posted on

A Charlie Brown New Year

Last Wednesday, I took a hard but fast spill that jolted my being and got me thinking about the realities of the world. The fall itself took less than a few seconds, but I am still reflecting well on the lessons I learned from it.  I was walking to the subway on West on 96th Street in New York City with my friend Joe.  That is my standard method of getting to work in the morning. I felt in my pocket to see if I had brought my glasses and realized that I had not. Just when I was about to get irritated that I had not remembered my glasses, I slipped in a major way. If you have ever seen the Peanuts comics where Lucy pulls away the ball before Charlie Brown has the chance to kick it, you will know exactly how I
fell.

Continue reading → A Charlie Brown New Year

Posted on

Falling

Fall tumbles earthward
Leaves linger light no longer
Winter darkness flies