The Creative Barriers
The long days of summer have finally arrived, and with them comes a struggle to focus on pressing issues. The herbs have overgrown in my backyard, a clear sign that...
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Roasting A Pig
I’ve roasted a pig or lamb every year for five years now. I build my own barbeque pit to roast pigs and then serve 50 or so people. This year I made a video explaining how I did it.
When Mayberry Becomes Too Expensive
What happens to Mayberry in the City when it becomes a place just for the well-to-do?
Who Will Be Our Sea Peoples?
The stories that survived – from thousands of years ago – are sweeping, and sometimes very personal. We’re reminded by Ammurapi’s undelivered clay tablet plea that real people existed 3,200 years ago, who harbored hopes and dreams just as we do today. The distance of time and lack of written records separates us from ancient people, but it does not make us very different from them.
The Death of Adventure
Above, the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest, where I've got to get to at some point. Lately my idle moments have been spent surfing Orbitz, Hotels.com and every manner of travel...
How Do We Decide You’re Enough?
Aren’t you enough? I don’t really mean you, per se. I mean the plural you. All of you reading this.
This is the place.
Our house, before and after we got new siding in 2011. I live on the top floor of a two-flat on a leafy street, just a few doors from Western...
‘I wasn’t really an activist – I just learned a lot.’
Embed from Getty Images Far, far in the back, there's Lou Fourcher. Last month my father, Lou Fourcher, passed away after a fourteen-year struggle with Alzheimer’s. Since then, our family...
Finding The Mindset For Major Personal Change
I recently interviewed three friends who’ve made major life changes to learn why and how they did them.
The Great And Good Things Dad Did For Me
Lou Fourcher was far from perfect, no man could ever be. But as his only child, I was showered with love, encouragement and wisdom like no other.
We’re All Part of The Team
I was part of a team today. This afternoon I went for my regular swim at the local park district pool. Loaded down with Thanksgiving food, it was harder than...
I Hate Swimming, But I’ll Never Stop
[caption id="attachment_247" align="aligncenter" width="533"] The Welles Park pool in Chicago where I swim. In the summer, the walls slide aside to the open air. On winter mornings, sunlight streams in.[/caption]...
Saturday Morning Around The World
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdaRNPxfyoA[/embedyt] If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you know that the American world fell into a shitstorm this week. Rather than write about the big topic we’re...
Just A Shell
[caption id="attachment_200" align="aligncenter" width="533"] Lou Fourcher, at Loyola Beach in Chicago, June 2012.[/caption] It begins one of two ways, either a call to your cell marked “No Caller ID”, or...
I Was Raised By A Black Woman
One of my mothers was a black woman and I miss her more than words can convey. I’ve tried countless times to write this essay, because I want to tell...