The Two Takes

His Take:  So, I’ve been listening to podcasts for a long, long time. But about 5 years ago, I stopped cold turkey. Deleted the podcast app off my phone. It was nothing personal, I just needed to focus on other things. I would still listen to a couple of my favorites on the computer when I was doing some work, but for the most part, I gave them up. Until last fall when I started exercising by taking long walks. I started out listening to SiriusXM, but there were times when I just couldn’t find anything interesting to listen to. So reluctantly I restored the app and started browsing some podcasts. The first one to catch my eye was one called “The Things About Pam”. I read a description, it was a real-life murder mystery, so I listened to the first episode. Turns out it was a podcast by the news show Dateline NBC, it involved a chain of events set off by the murder of a woman that turned into a huge web of wrongdoings, misrepresentations, and overall, shenanigans. It was a multi-...

You just get one blogger this week... Wait! Don't let the title scare you. He's fine, he's just busy, so he left me to my own devices. I chose to take the chance to tell you how I'm really feeling, right now. Thank you for being here. Her Take: Hi Friend. I hope you don’t mind the heavy ones because even as I’m just hitting the first key strokes I can tell you that this feels like it’s going to be heavy. If you do mind, I understand, and that’s ok. But can you stick with me at least until you know why I feel like it has to be that way? That would make this feel so much better.  I don’t handle death well, I guess. At least that’s a thing I’ve heard has been said about me.  And, ok. It might be true. Or! Or-or-or-or-or maybe, just maybe, I’m a rare and unusual person who deals with it EXACTLY the right way and that other person is wrong. Right? I’m just saying it’s possible.  Either way, here’s what’s going on: last Thursday morning I was sitting at w...

His Take: I don’t know if what I’m looking forward to in 2020 has been created yet. Maybe it’s in the process of being created and I just haven’t found out about it yet. So, I’m gonna go a different way and say that I’m looking forward to a fresh start. Yes, around the first of the year everyone gets that feeling. Along with the feeling to exercise, but that’s a discussion for another time. So yeah, everyone (including me) always seems to say “THIS is the year!!” and I know everyone has the best of intentions, but most of us are eating whole fruit pies by January 21st. I don’t really think any of us start out to fail, but I think over time that “fresh start” feeling seems to wear off or we get busy or we just give up  and go back to our old ways. There’s nothing wrong with that. Willpower is a muscle, and like any muscle it can get overworked, spasm or sprained. Just like building a muscle, we have to work it in slow, small actions. Baby-steps, if you will. I’m sure you know th...

Her Take: Hi! Let me spend just a minute over explaining something right here are the top, ok? I like to do this because it gives me a chance to worry about something that no one else is even thinking about and then, by explaining that thing, make them aware that they should be. It’s a terrible idea, and yet here I go: When I suggested this week’s topic to my co-blogger, I knew it was a little weird and new age-y and he had every right not to let me drag him into the fuzzy, tie-dyed abyss that is my own brain, but he said yes. He’s awesome.  Now I’m about to write and I’m worried that you, my friend, will also think it’s a little hippy-dippy and not take it seriously, but I have to let that go. You’re about to find out why.  I wanted to have a better ‘Word for 2020’, I really did. Something cool and inspiring like ‘PURPOSE’ or ‘COURAGE’ - all in capital letters like that, obviously, and probably also emblazoned on a wall hanging or, at the very least, on a coffee cu...