Breathe Grace

Our granddaughter, now 9-months old, recently encountered the concept of her shadow. It’s remarkable to watch a little human’s intrinsic curiosity at work. In a pre-toddler, not yet able to mentally process information in verbal building blocks, how does this instinctive wondering and curiosity manifest itself? What remarkable process drives a developing brain to spot patterns, to test a cause for an effect, and to figure things out? Science, in its basic form, is a circular process […]

Seventh grade. Woodshop. Our assignment was to make a simple birdhouse. With the undeveloped attention span and stream-of-consciousness priorities of a thirteen-year-old, I completely ignored  board-foot calculations, and any notion of efficiently using lumber.  I also breezed through the steps that involved applying glue to joints before nailing the pieces together. I recall squeezing glue onto my fingers, and attempting to push and smear the adhesive into the joints. Somehow, I could just feel the presence […]

I had a business associate who frequently used the most comforting phase. He was my CFO – Chief Financial Officer. Situations constantly arise in business involving both legal and financial issues that are complex and difficult to explain easily. Rather than taking me through all the complexities, the issues, reasons, status, he’d just say ‘it’s handled’. What a comfortable, easy, refreshing statement. Are we getting SEC filings out? Or is the audit committee going to be […]

The Biosphere science research center in Oracle Arizona was built to study the interactions between humans, farming, technology and nature. The sealed, 3.14 acre vivarium housed five biome areas including a rainforest, a small ocean with a coral reef, a mangrove wetlands, a savannah grassland, and a small desert. Its agricultural system was intended to be self-sustaining, with no requirement for externally-sourced energy or atmospheric gases. One of the unforeseen outcomes of the Biosphere project […]

As I entered the airport security line coming home from Pittsburgh, the TSA agent tapped on a handheld device and, after reading the display, directed me to a special aisle. I glanced at the product name on the device as I passed – it was labeled “TSA Randomizer”. For some reason, TSA has started to