Over the past three years, 15 prominent women, all leaders in their fields of endeavor, have honored my wife, Cherie, by agreeing to participate as speakers in the “Day of Dialogue: Women of Interest” series supported by 850 Magazine, hosted…
John Brueske / Shutterstock.com I grew up in a railroad town. Wildwood was an important rail yard by virtue of its location in the heart of Florida. Fact is, it had been that way long before my time, and even…
Finding myself one tweet over the line, I very deliberately, consciously turned off the news and reported to a weekly gathering of optimistic, grounded people who are close to the earth. They are the kind of folks who would line…
My wife Cherie and I count travel as one of our chief passions. Over the past 30 years, we have visited six continents and experienced many cultures, in the process learning a great deal about both others and ourselves. When…
David Zeballos Writer Joseph Zeballos-Roig with a collection of Mario Vargas Llosa’s work on a recent trip to Peru. From Llosa’s books, Zeballos-Roig gained an even deeper appreciation for his home country. When Tallahassee was plunged into darkness by Tropical…
Recently, I watched a show on HBO hosted by Bryant Gumbel, who was joined by an Ivy League psychologist. Jointly, the two men interviewed two accomplished individuals — a retired Navy SEAL and a former professional football player. The interviewees…
Paul Simon, of all people, turned me on to it, Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson’s remarkable assessment of life on our planet, “Half-Earth.” Writing in The New York Times, Simon rates the book “compulsory reading” for all who care…
“I have always believed that the pain of losing someone is directly proportional to the joy you shared in life.” "Dearest Audrey. None of us is ever old enough to lose our Mammas. Sending gentle thoughts. Love, Sally.” Courtesy Audrey…
My mother is well shielded from the sun in her bucket hat, long-sleeved gingham windbreaker and long cotton pants. She is seated at the bow of a heavy, open fiberglass fishing skiff and, while her eyes are shielded by sunglasses,…
After 25 years in the advertising and marketing business, I am never surprised when a phone call goes unreturned. Rather than becoming offended on such occasions, I let them roll off me like water. Recently, however, I have found myself…
illustration by Charles Bakofsky Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer had his hooves full facing down the mighty “Abominable Snow Monster of the North,” a fiend from the darkest reaches of the icy wilderness. But if we stop and think about it,…
There are those playing-field-leveling events — natural disasters and the holiday season, for example — that bring people together and infuse all involved with a desire to make a contribution, to help out in some way. Hours after Hermine blew…
I’m not an automotive junkie, but doggone it, I miss the front bench seat. This kind of seating arrangement — as a standard amenity — has been extinct since bucket seats and transmission-mounted gearshifts took the domestic auto industry by…
In North Miami, police respond to a 911 report of a suicidal man with a gun. Arriving at the scene, they encounter two men in the middle of an intersection and order them to lie down with their hands raised.…
Giving opens many doors, creating new and numerous opportunities along our life paths. In my line of work, I interact with a wide range of people representing countless organizations, passions and fields of endeavor. For some, I have noticed, giving…
Having arrived in this world with the DNA of a Middle European, I have a quick and easy time of it when it comes to getting a sunburn. So it was that while in college I had to develop something…
One score and a few months ago, Ron Sachs, who had served two governors as a communication director, hung out a shingle at leased space on Jefferson Street in Tallahassee. On Day One, he sat first at the receptionist’s desk,…
Shari Cakir Brogans, as worn by men in latter 19th-century America, were cobbled, I was to find out, such that the left was indistinguishable from the right. Too, their hard soles made it hard to obtain purchase on surfaces the…
