Michael is a coffee entrepreneur and sometimes author living with his wife and family in the Pacific Northwest. For more articles like this one, please visit www.wordperk.com featuring stories about small town life. It has been a while since putting pen to paper for the Review. I have not stopped writing but since a good deal of what is on my mind makes some uncomfortable, out of respect for my old friend, Whit the publisher, who gets the brunt of the blow-back, […]
“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I—I hardly know, Sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several […]
Sunny was the last pup left in the litter. Hearts were set on a yellow lab puppy and for some inexplicable reason, these pups were in short supply. Sunny (Mary named her) was an atypical Labrador Retriever with a pointy snout and head more like a greyhound than a […]
A Cup of Conversation – July 2020
George Orwell knew. Everyone else was highly entertained or at least amused but not George. He tried to tell us. Some were listening. Most were not. Now they are. George was a lone voice in the wilderness. His words now haunt us…at least half of us, hopefully more. The […]
There has been much to reflect on over the last couple of months. In addition to the sobering questions about the health of our community and the rest of the world, everything we’ve built over the last generation is at risk. We’re not alone. Few if any are not […]
“One lives in the hope of becoming a memory.” ― Antonio Porchia
There has been a great deal of death as of late. Every day and night we’re reminded how many people have drawn a last breath. It’s now impossible to ignore the reality of mortality when once so used to […]
It has been reported that Abe Lincoln once summed up his thoughts on trade by declaring, “I don’t know much about the tariff but I do know that if my wife buys her cloak in America, we get the money and the cloak, and that American labor is paid […]
“It is said that Wisdom lies in not seeing things, But seeing through things.” ~Manly P. Hall
Vision is an unfathomable gift in design and function. Just ask any person without the ability to see. Yet vision has an inescapable flaw, an inherent disability to those relying on sight to […]
Our kids and their families are all coming home for Christmas. Mary cannot stop smiling. The newlyweds are wheels down on Christmas Eve. If asked, our beautiful girl would say there is no place on earth she’d rather be for the holidays. Even our Bay Area, Forty-Niner football […]
“Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.”~Doris Day
I’m grateful for the freedoms our great nation has provided but afraid Doris’s generation may have been freedom’s last. Privilege of freedom came at great cost born by those before me. I’m so grateful for their sacrifice but fear blood spilled and treasure […]
Mary and I spent a week in San Diego to participate in a “paddle out” celebrating her late brother Billy’s life. These things are always bittersweet. Bitter because loss is final, sweet because love left behind never expires.
Another brother-in-law, whom I treasure, […]
Good Evening. Looks like the father of the bride is scheduled last to toast tonight. That’s okay. It gives me what may be the last opportunity to thank you so much for being here. Our family is overwhelmed by the outpouring of love on this […]
We kept this big guy. Look at that face. How could we not? Mary calls him Happy. That’s fine for a house pet but not for a hunter. I’ll call him Happ when he’s in the field. It works.
I’m completely over the puppies-experience. By week two of eight, my decision-making paradigm was under major assault. In winter-time, one puppy can be a full-time job if your set up is flawed…eight puppies test the outer-limits of what’s humanly possible assuming hygiene and thoughtful care are […]
Our Labrador Sunny is with pups. This was intentional but we’re not in the breeder business. We wanted another dog to keep Sunny company now that Mary is getting back on her feet and ready to spend more time in the retail shops. It’s been a long season and we’re all looking forward to seeing […]
Someone once told me no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. Think about it. Successful politicians mastered the counterfeit of empathy by kissing babies and patiently listening to hard luck stories from potential voters but they can’t fake the real thing for […]
“A house divided cannot stand…” ~Abraham Lincoln
“How sad it is that we give up on people who are just like us.” ~Mr. Rogers, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” ~Martin Luther […]
I enjoyed breakfast the other day at Buttercloud Bakery in Medford. They’ve been open for years but this was my first time. Buttercloud is outstanding and I’m kicking myself for taking so long to go. I told the guy who looked in-charge that establishments like his were important because […]
A Cup of Conversation – October 2018
I loathe local politics. It is counter-intuitive for a small-town merchant to open his mouth on any issue splitting business along two polar extremes. I’ve avoided this stupidity for most of our three decades doing business in Jacksonville.
Having said this, there are times when keeping silent out of self-preservation […]
We’re planning a wedding. Our youngest found her soul-mate. He is one very fortunate young man. It’s a good thing I really like him. It would have been an uphill battle all the way, spoken of course in the narrative of the “father of the bride.”
The toast is being […]
“Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put into this world
to rise above.”
~Katherine Hepburn to Humphrey Bogart in
The African Queen, 1952.
I allocate a certain amount of time every month to visit the coffee aisle in our area’s grocery stores. It’s amazing what the shelves reveal about the mind […]
“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created including the hearts, likes, and thumbs up of various social media channels are destroying how society works. There’s no civil discourse, no cooperation; only misinformation, mistruth.” Chamath Palihapitiy, Former Vice-President for User Growth, Facebook
There it is. Straight from the dragon’s mouth. New-tech minds exploiting the most vulnerable elements […]
I read the other day the difference between having cancer or not is just one radicalized cell…out of billions. Makes me rethink the microwave.
The difference between driving safely down the highway and a horrific head on collision is one ill-timed text or hot coffee spill. Maybe extra hot to […]
We recently watched a Netflix production called Jerry (before) Seinfeld. The iconic comedian showed his genius once again by revisiting where it all began. Aside from initially laughing our tails off, I was reminded of a time long forgotten… but then stopped laughing. Jerry quipped about growing up in […]
Life was not a valuable gift, but death was. Life was a fever-dream made up of joys embittered by sorrows, pleasure poisoned by pain; a dream that was a nightmare-confusion of spasmodic and fleeting delights, ecstasies, exultations, happinesses, interspersed with long-drawn miseries, griefs, perils, horrors, disappointments, defeats, humiliations, and […]
An old man walked across a city intersection on a blistering hot summer day. His shock white, trimmed full head of hair and long beard betrayed advanced age as he walked with a damaged gait; probably an old injury never healed. A Santa Claus belly screamed […]
I’m not a writer by profession but brewing up a cup of conversation has come reasonably natural. My concern about staring at a blank page with nothing to offer hasn’t been an issue although the empty page does steep a little longer these days. It must be the “growing […]
I enjoy reading Paul Becker’s column. Our mayor is bedrock small town life. Some will respectfully disagree with his views on city business but none can argue the irreducible wisdom gleaned from the better part of a century living the dream called America.
Paul will continue to defend the next […]
The North was losing the war to keep the Union. Robert E. Lee, a southern aristocrat, originally asked to lead the Union, chose the side of his beloved Virginia even though his personal belief was slavery to be a moral and political evil. Lee was a […]
Editor’s Note: After learning about a proposed restaurant meals tax, (which the City Council has since axed) Michael served-up his thoughts on the matter…just in case the topic comes up again.
Once upon a time there was a community of neighborly animals living deep in the northwest Woods, far removed […]
There’s a reason why politics and religion are taboo topics at dinner parties. We can creatively design filters to guard the truth about what we really think but these days all it takes to pre-judge is a slip of the tongue about who we voted for in the last election. […]
I had to skip a couple articles; my apologies. Along with my very sick wife needing extended out of town medical care, we had an unexpected funeral to attend for her beloved brother and, oh yes, there’s that nasty business of being sued for copyright infringement.
Apparently, a Google […]
I lost my patience the other evening. Patience and controlling the tongue are active, not passive. Patience is graduate level virtue not without personal cost and tamed tongues are essential to relationship, respect, and reconciliation.
Mary was out of town so I was dining alone. The restaurant was busy and […]
A couple thousand years ago, a contributing writer to the world’s best-selling book penned, “If any man thinks he knows anything, he knows not yet what he ought to know.” ¹ I think we’re learning that unfettered access to information is inversely proportional to knowing the truth about anything. […]
When good is called evil and evil is called good, moral relevancy is replaced by something else. In the 21st century, it is political correctness. Free speech in the public arena is now about silencing speech. That’s pretty warped but nothing novel. The free press has […]
There are moments in our kids’ lives, pivotal moments defining who they are and what they’re destined to be. Some twenty years ago, summer in Oregon came early. Our youngest was just a year old and headed back east with her mother. Mary was going to visit an elderly […]
When we sat down to prepare our trust and will arrangements, the estate planner asked how we wanted to structure the end of life details. This means death and burial instructions. The attorney said no detail is too small. They clearly didn’t know who they were talking to.
Mary said […]
Our grown daughter sent me this the other day. She said it reminded her of me…Love you, Dad! That’s pretty funny but not really. Her teen years were foggy days for me. I was sick as a dog for that particular time in space
We were blessed with a very beautiful daughter although I could make […]
I studied economics in college. Almost every macro-economics professor used the Great Depression as a model in explaining modern theory. Today, honest analysis tells us there isn’t much difference in real market and index markers than during the worst financial crisis in this nation’s history. The only reason why […]
Healing is a glimpse of heaven. Those sick, in pain or severely depressed can appreciate the depth of the metaphor. Spiritual life reveals much about what we don’t understand and the joy of heaven is real to those with faith to believe. In this world, however, there is […]
Last Christmas Eve was joyously spent at the Jacksonville Inn. A week later, our family celebrated at the Bella Union. Our grown kids look forward to this every homecoming because these places represent home to them. We have no memories of Jacksonville without Jerry Evans and Jerry Hayes and […]
Number 30 of the 33 notable things observed over the past twenty-five years of living and doing business in a small town says,
“Understand the inherent moral contract of employing young people. With the right guidance and encouragement, any one of them just may change the world for the better.”
We’ve […]
I watched ESPN’s Arthur Ashe Courage Award presentation honoring Bruce Jenner. The Arthur Ashe Award is named after the iconic tennis star, a man of color in a once traditionally white sport. Arthur was a magnificent athlete and like Bruce found his identity on the courts of fierce competition […]
Truth be known, I suffer from lawn envy. Dad had it in spades as does my brother. The neighbor’s greener, thicker, well-manicured grass drives us crazy. If there is a deeper-seated reason for this petty neurosis, I’d rather not know. At least I’m talking about it which is the […]
It is interesting how we memorialize the end of things. What is it about the last day or last goodbye or last play of the game that gets our attention? Could it be because we innately understand everything in life has an expiration date so the passing of even […]
Mary recently suggested I update the profile photo on this column. I asked her why and she said the image didn’t really look like me anymore. I’m trying not to read too much into that but image and perception are primarily manipulated by what we see and therefore believe. […]
Our house had just burned down. A few weeks later my wife was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, not the best of times. I mention this only because it was during this season Mikie walked into my life. It’s always when we’re the most distracted by our own issues that […]
Channel surfing the other night, I landed on National Geographic’s Big Cats of the Serengeti. This is where my wife usually exits the room but not before shooting me a subtle yet unmistakable look of disapproval. Okay, I’m drawn to the drama of the plains but not because of […]
I remember the day Mary’s obstetrician told us the baby was transverse lie breach (hugging mamma high and tight sideways) though we still had time. The due day was a few weeks out and there was no sign of an early delivery, not to worry! Leaving the office, however, […]