Happy NEW Year
New Year’s Eve is a threshold—one foot in the year that was, one in the year that will be. Rilke reminds us that the future isn’t just more of the…
Matt Fowler
Happy 100th to Dad
Today would have been Dad’s 100th birthday. He was never really pointed at 100 to be honest. I think 17 year old Billy (#10) would have been surprised that he…
9/11 – Twenty Four Years
OK, here’s mine. 24 years ago I was in a funeral home on Harrison Avenue in Panama City, Florida. It was temporarily the Bay County Association of Realtors when I…
Family Stories: The Grishams
More old pics on Mom’s side of the family. Look at that bow! This is my Great Aunt (Audra Leonard Bates Grisham 1905-1988), my Mom’s Mom’s sister, with her little…
Patriotism: The Next Gang of Robbers
“Patriotism … is a word which always commemorates a robbery.”—Mark Twain, Notebook, May 26, 1896 Mark Twain had a way of cutting through the fog. In his 1896 notebook, he…
Nine Days Later: June 28th, 1865
I’m CEO of a company that decided to be closed today, on purpose. We’re sure some people would like to know why. If you have time, this is Page Two…
450 Million Meals, Earthquakes, & Butterflies
When in DC we go out to eat at fun places that are unlike things we have back in Durham. We love Durham and the restaurants here are well known…
Where Should We Put All That New Housing?
Everyone alive and breathing in America today has heard about “The Housing Crisis”. Doorify MLS closely monitors the housing market in 16-counties around Raleigh, North Carolina. The MLS is the…
Were the COVID-19 Vaccines Safe and Effective? What the Science Says
It’s been a few years since the first COVID-19 vaccines rolled out, and with the benefit of hindsight—and mountains of data—we can now answer one of the biggest questions of…
Stilton Cheese, Quenby Hall, and The Ashby’s
Most who knows me likely know I am writing a book, or trying to. It is loosely based on my family’s history and includes real stories of actual people, including…
Happy Anniversary, Give Blood
I can’t give blood. My marriage has lasted for 37 years and I have gotten to celebrate our love, our commitment, our good luck to find each other, 37 times.…
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Why Learning Matters
Imagine trying to reinvent the theory of gravity or rediscover penicillin, the life-saving medicine, every generation. When the person who invented the thing dies, what if it all went with…
“Happy Birthday”
Some days are better than other days. For example, today is my sixtieth birthday and I got to take my granddaughter to preschool. She calls me Grumpy. Today is a…
Objective Reality
Understanding Objective Reality: From Bacon to the Digital Age Objective reality—an existence independent of perception—has long fascinated thinkers. Francis Bacon, in The Great Instauration, laid the groundwork for empiricism, emphasizing…
The Door Is Open—Why Do You Stay?
The Door Is Open—Why Do You Stay? What if you could rewrite the narrative of your life starting today? Too often, people live as though trapped in an invisible cage,…
