Eurekas and Escapades

I recently took my DNA test to evaluate what ancestry my DNA most closely aligns to. Perhaps you have done this, and similar to me, anticipated what the results would be before taking the test.  Based on my family heritage and what I knew to date, my Mom's side was mostly German with some "English" thrown in there. I air-quote English because it was never clear to me what that meant - am I more "Winston Churchill" or more "William Wallace", more "Bono" or more "Beatles"?  On my Dad's side, I honestly had no clue what my ancestry was. I knew two things before taking the test:  1. My Grandma mentioned our ancestor's were a part of the Mormon settlers, that perhaps we snuck onto to ol' wagon train heading west and after getting into the Pacific Northwest, dismissed religion all together.  2. The surname Eller was related to a German term for "those that lived near the elderberry bush". So in considering my heritag...

I am starting a book, The Essential Wooden,  by UCLA basketball coach John Wooden sharing his lessons on leadership, and made me think of a few things today in line with the Inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Harris, particularly with the absence of President Trump as he retreated to Mar-a-Lago. With the excellent ESPN documentary The Last Dance fresh in my mind, it reminded me of the 1991 NBA Finals when the Detroit Pistons walked off the court with time still on the clock, refusing to shake the hands of the Chicago Bulls who just swept them in 5 games after losing to them the last 2 years.  It made me ponder about sportsmanship, asking: If our country was a basketball team... We have a new coach now, who is tasked with setting the example in leadership, strategy, responsibility, sportsmanship, but more importantly, promoting a love for the game. The coach has a vision for how to play the game, but it involves the cooperation, participation and hope ...

Musings on Truth, Part 1 of Many There is a scene on the day of Jesus’ execution, after an unfair trial conducted at night by the spiritual leaders of the day, Jesus has been delivered to the Roman governor. After questioning Jesus of purpose, Pilate quips "Quid est vertias?", Latin for "What is truth"? But then, without waiting for an answer, he walks away.   Since that passage first caught my eye while I was in college, I return to it often, thinking about its relevancy, playing the scene out in my head, and even after 15+ years, my imagination begins to transition to something with Tom Cruise yelling at Jack Nicholson, demanding "I want the truth!". With the events at the Capitol this past week, there were a lot of people on both sides of the political spectrum demanding "I want the truth!", but may I ask, "can we even handle the truth?" (queue most circulated meme ever about this topic) The governor, Pontius Pilate, was not an ele...