“Don’t get happy!” came the thundering voice from the sidelines. It was a classic saying of the late Norm Walker, my football coach, English teacher, poet, wisdom-giver, and wonderful man in high school at Holderness School. It sounded strange at first blush, but made sense the longer one played for Coach Walker: he hated cockiness, […]

Take meTo the magic of the moment on a glory night I wasn’t expecting to hear the Scorpions in the rural outskirts of Danilovgrad. And especially not belted out by a group of passionate, wine-buzzed, new Montenegrin friends roughly in tune with an accordion player. But, strange things happen when you open up on the […]

The flakes stung my cheeks, wind whipped, swirling through pines swaying in the gale. It was only 25 degrees or so, not cold for this valley this time of year, but cold enough to feel icy tendrils snaking up my extremities. I wanted to go, to move, to get warm. But not yet. I came […]

By all accounts, he wasn’t an easy man, my grandfather. He pushed hard, asked a lot, expected excellence - or at least excellent effort - from all around him. But, also by all accounts, he didn’t have the easiest beginnings, so his idiosyncrasies can at least be understood, if not justified. Sadly, I never met […]