There I stood beside my brother, sister and maternal grandfather, Edward Fagan. At the time, it seemed like just another family photograph.

It holds everything.

Would I agree to an interview for her 8th grade school project, he asked?

Two days, 1,100 miles and 11 states. No distractions. No screens. No rushing. Just time.

“You’ll never amount to anything. You’re all a bunch of dead-end kids.”

He came nearly every Sunday.

At a wedding a few years ago, I was seated next to the bride’s Uncle Bob. One of his gifts to the
newlyweds? A bathroom plunger with a note taped to the handle: “Especially for you!
Sometimes you have to get the CRAP out of the way.”

In 8th grade, when many of my classmates were auditioning for roles in The Wizard of Oz, I made a different choice. I signed up for the lighting and technical crew.

The warning signs couldn’t have been clearer: DANGER QUICKSAND

As a kid in Berlin, Connecticut, I used to watch an Amtrak train called the “Montrealer” roar
through town, heading north toward a place that felt exotic and unreachable. Years later, I
registered for a 400+ mile cycling event from Connecticut to Montreal - three days, 22,000 feet of climbing, four states, one international border.

Every marathoner knows the number: 26.2 miles.

Quoting Danish author Isak Dinesen 12 years ago this month, I started my mother’s eulogy by telling those gathered that “All sorrows can be borne if you tell a story about them.”

What if the greatest risk to your success isn’t the market, the competition, or the economy - but your own depletion?

My initial reaction was not favorable.

The XXV Olympic Winter Games are winding down - two weeks that remind us of a simple truth: medals are won in moments most people never see.

“There’s no sadness here.” Four words.

Last month, a soaked and shivering coyote hauled itself onto the rocky shores of Alcatraz after a one mile swim through the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay.

In May of 1920, the world was changing fast.

“Do you want to try to land runway one three?”

“If it bleeds, it leads.”