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BEST ADVICE FROM UNEXPECTED SOURCES

The best advice is words of wisdom from a trusted wise man, or wise woman. If that’s what you’re looking for, keep looking. You’ll find it, or give up trying. This is a post for just such quitters. Quitters who figured it out on their own.

PARENTAL ADVICE FROM THE HISTORY OF ALL PARENTAL ADVICE

Parental advice is best served as a hand-me-down plate. That is, tell your kids what your parents told you so they’ll know what to tell their kids. Sound complicated? It’s not. Instead, it is listening, listening and understanding. It goes like this:

WRITING ADVICE FOR A BROKEN HEART HOSPITAL CAMPOUT

Writing advice from writers usually comes with a warning, or should: This is what works for them. It might work for you or another writer, but it definitely works for them. After a single night campout in a hospital bed, their advice carried more weight for better or worse. A week out from the event […]

WHY SAD ENDINGS RUIN LIVING HAPPILY EVER AFTER

Sad endings of books and movies leave time for reflection and hope: I reflect on why I ever started the story and hope it never happens again. It always happens again, but, as a mature adult, I feel the possibility of emotional growth from sad endings. Experience says we all grow. ‘Grow what’ is the […]

MEDICAL ADVICE SAVES LIVES SOONER THAN LATER

Medical advice is different than mechanical advice for a car? While it is shocking news to some, the wrong advice can kill you. The guy at the car wash says your brakes are fine because you stopped when they gave the sign. But those brakes are grinding at every light. When is the right time […]

EVERY DAY IS A NEW CHANCE FOR SMALL CHANGES

Every day has promises to keep with miles to go before we sleep. Sound familiar? It was a poem written by an old man named Robert Frost. When I first read ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ I chalked it up to a reflection on mortality. Reading it now, instead of a high school […]

GRANDDAD ADVICE: WHAT KIDS LEARN FIRST

Granddad advice is the last thing needed for a newborn? Whoever said that? If you’re a grandpa who doesn’t give Granddad advice, do you know what’s coming? Grandma advice. No matter who speaks up first, make it useful. The first thing to beware of:

BAD ADVICE FOR GOOD PEOPLE TO IGNORE

Bad advice usually isn’t life threatening, it just feels like it at first. When it comes from the right person, we follow the advice, good or bad. That habit comes from years of training at the school of ‘Do As I Say, Not As I Do.’ Some bad advice too many followed, are following, will […]

EXPERT: YOU KNOW AN EXPERT WHEN YOU SEE ONE

The expert here is Yo-Yo Ma. I know he’s an expert because of reputation. A great musician, though I don’t know his top ten, or any other work he’s done. It could be any cellist, but there’s something about this one. Have you wondered where experts come from? Me, too.

BIG MOMENTS CHANGE LIFE DIRECTION

The first thought I have when I hear someone complain about their life going nowhere fast? ‘Then do something to change your life direction.’ Do I give advice on what to change? Oh, hell no. My advice to boomerpdx readers follows the same line of thinking: Don’t offer advice to someone complaining about their life […]