Pete Seeger is gone now. I thought about eulogizing him with a Top 10 list of his songs, but it seems more appropriate to reinforce the reality check that it’s now officially time for us to do it ourselves, to stand up.

Today’s challenge – pulling together the acknowledgment of Dr. King’s birthday, the passing of a beloved friend, a bad decision and a little Duke Ellington.

Even better than “Happy New Year,” if I dare say so. My one goal for 2014 is to pass the “pillow test” even more often than in 2013. If that happens (call it the pursuit of a New Year’s resolution, if you will), everything else will fall into place to the greatest extent that I’m able to control.

This date is unbearably complex. Today I turn 40 and today I join with all those who reflect on the still impossible to understand losses suffered at Sandy Hook Elementary School one year ago today. Love still wins, and now I have the neurobiological data to prove it.

There is no shortage of things we all know we should be thankful for in late November. Here’s a less conventional one: annoyance. When the cable goes out during the game or the cornbread gets burned or Uncle Sheldon shows up late and then tells the SAME boring story he tells every year, let yourself…

Have you ever made the statement “you can tell me anything” to someone else? This is a well-intentioned statement and we usually perceive it to be genuine. But do we really mean it? And more significantly, are our actions really embodying it? Even when it’s difficult for us, possibly even making us feel bad about negative impacts of our own actions? Hmmm . . .

Do you have to go to beauty school to learn consistency of word and deed? Not if you’re stuck with me as a teacher . . .

What is it with me and philosophical revelations that occur at 5-5 in the third set? This time it incorporates disability, tragedy, Paul Simon and the potential for triumph of the human spirit and beyond.

There is an distinction between pain and suffering, two words and concepts that are often (but erroneously) treated as synonyms. Even if our pain is unavoidable, we can improve our quality of life by tackling suffering!