Be Like Ned

One year ago today, we lost our dear friend Ned. (The “we” in this case includes the countless people Ned befriended during his too-short time on earth.)

I’m reposting my tribute to Ned from last October below. And adding a few more thoughts:

  • Be kind to everyone you meet, from the cashier at the supermarket on up, like Ned was.
  • Be caring, like Ned was. Ask others how they are doing.
  • Be faithful, like Ned was. A devoted husband, a proud parent, and a true-blue friend.
  • Be open to adventure, like Ned was.

If we could all be a bit more like Ned, the world would be a much better place. And to those of us who were lucky enough to know Ned, our part of the world IS a better place than it was before he came into our lives.

Photographs and Memories (from oct. 2023)

Back in my college days, if we needed someone to get swung around like a helicopter blade during a party, Ned was there.

If we needed someone to dress up like an elf, Ned was there.

Getting handcuffed to a loft? Ned was there.

Beer bongs? Ned was there.

For all of our Spring break adventures, Ned was there.

If we needed someone to man the grill, Ned was there.

At all those parties — in the dorm rooms, in the quad, and at the bars — Ned was there.

Whenever you needed a friend, Ned was there.

After college, when some folks from our gang got married, Ned was there.

At all the memorable moments over the past 40 years , Ned was there. Always.

Then, this past Monday, out of the blue, Ned was no longer there.

Suddenly —
You were gone
From all the lives
You left your mark upon

Ned had a stroke back in May of 2020 – it caused all sorts of health complications. But his departure still came as a shock. Now he’s in another “there” and we’re still here.

Tried to believe
But you know it’s no good
This is something
That just can’t be understood

Every one of us has a special place in our heart for the guy who was good-natured, sweet, kind, caring, smart, attentive, funny… and always up for a good time. Ned is still there. He always will be.

The Wheel Deal

[Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. The man’s been keeping me down. – Ed.]

We did it!

We raised $1,400 for cancer research and care in Greater Cincinnati.

Sure, I was the one pedaling 24 miles in the Ride Cincinnati fundraiser. But I had lots of help.

[Actually I was out of town when the official event took place, but I did my ride the next day, and rode 25 miles, since my supporters went the extra mile for me.]

I had help from every single person who donated.

And my friends Phil and Suzie joined me on the 25-mile ride, which made it a heck of a lot easier and more enjoyable.

My inspiration and motivation was my friend John (a.k.a. “LJ”) who had a cancerous brain tumor removed back in May. Phil and Suzie have known John and his wife Patty since back in our college days, when Suzie and Patty were kicking butt as part of Xavier’s volleyball team.

We’re all connected. Not just John and Patty and Phil and Suzie and me and my donors… everyone has been impacted by cancer. Personally, or within their family, or within their social circle.

Just spokes on a big wheel – with love as the hub.

Cancer sucks. Love rules.

Thanks for your support!

The Fine Art of Making Mistakes

Yes, I still read comic strips. Not only that, but I also read blog posts from some comic strip creators (not the Dilbert guy, though…).

“Wayno” is the nom de plume for the guy who creates the weekday versions of Bizarro, a single panel strip created by Dan Piraro (who still does the Sunday version). Wayno just won the National Cartoonists Society award for Best Newspaper Panel. Here’s a recent example of his work:

A twist on the ol’ banana peel joke… with a tribute to music/pop art thrown in for good measure:

No wonder Wayno won!

But that’s not why we’re here today. We’re here because of Wayno’s blog. This recent post really hit home for me. It starts with a Captain Beefheart quote:

Art is rearranging and grouping mistakes.

Don Van Vliet aka Captain Beefheart

Don Van Vliet was eminently quotable, though much of what he said could be puzzling, as he had his own manner of forming thoughts and constructing sentences. The line we’re sharing here is straightforward and relatable. It’s also a valuable bit of advice.

My take is that experimentation and editing are required to produce art, and that it’s rarely created fully-formed. The most important step in creating any type of art is starting with something—a mark on a piece of paper or a couple of words, and building from there, keeping what works and setting aside what doesn’t. In fact, getting to a satisfying (if not great) work of art requires making countless mistakes.

It’s so true. And it echoes advice from other creators – Seth Godin’s “ship your work” and Steven Pressfield’s exhortation to fight “the resistance” by doing the work, and Anne LaMott’s concept of “sh*tty first drafts.”

If you want to make something great, start by making something. It might be awful… in fact it probably will be awful. But you’ll learn as you go – merrily screwing up along the way.

Trust the process – and mistakes are an integral part of the process.

“Copen” with Tourists

Those great Danes in Copenhagen came up with a great idea this summer: tourists could earn rewards (free lunch, tickets to a museum, etc.) for doing something good for the environment (cleaning the beach, riding a bike instead of driving, etc.) while they were visiting the city. You can read more in this piece from The Guardian.

Thanks to cheap airfare and immediate access to travel info, the world is a lot smaller these days. But that often means the most beautiful destinations around the globe are in danger of being trampled by tourists.

Kudos to Rikke Holm Petersen and the other folks at Visit Copenhagen who dreamt up the CopenPay pilot project and brought it to life.

“We want to make tourism a force for positive change not an environmental burden,” she says. “We want to inspire a greener mindset in tourists while they are visiting Copenhagen and [for them] to take that home with them.”

It’s the best of both worlds for our shared world. Tourists (Rikke Holm Petersen prefers the term “intermediate locals”) get to explore and enjoy the city, while also doing something positive that reminds them — in a gentle way — of the environmental impact of their travels.

More ideas like this, please! Maybe it’ll lead to fewer scenes like this:

For the record

It’s been less than two weeks since President Joe Biden addressed the nation and revealed his decision to withdraw from the 2024 election. What a difference a fortnight makes, eh?

But while most of the media will focus on the horse race aspect of this year’s “new and improved” presidential election, I think it makes sense to pause for a moment and consider the record of Joseph R. Biden, the 46th (and still current) President of the United States of America.

He laid it out quite nicely in his speech:

Today, we have the strongest economy in the world, creating nearly 16 million new jobs — a record. Wages are up, inflation continues to come down, the racial wealth gap is the lowest it’s been in 20 years. We’re literally rebuilding our entire nation, urban, suburban, rural and tribal communities. Manufacturing has come back to America.

We’re leading the world again in chips and science and innovation. We finally beat Big Pharma after all these years, to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors, and I’m going to keep fighting to make sure we lower the cost for everyone, not just seniors.

More people have health care today in America than ever before. And I signed one of the most significant laws helping millions of veterans and their families who were exposed to toxic materials. You know, the most significant climate law ever, ever in the history of the world, the first major gun safety law in 30 years. And today, violent crime rate is at a 50-year low.

We’re also securing our border. Border crossings are lower today than when the previous administration left office. And I’ve kept my commitment to appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court of the United States of America. I also kept my commitment to have an administration that looks like America and be a president for all Americans.

Yes, he’s fading a bit these days. Show me another 81-year-old with a schedule as mentally, physically and emotionally demanding as his. But it’s clear from the facts above (facts, not claims) that “Sleepy Joe” was never asleep at the switch. Heck, strip his name from his record and show it to most Americans and they’d vote for that person for president in a heartbeat.

If you want to blindly follow the world’s biggest bloviator, that seems weird to me, but you’re free to do so (for now… Day 1 Dictator plans to gut a lot of our freedoms, including voting. ). But I’ll take a strong record of productivity over the cult of personality all day, every day.

America is going to have to choose between moving forward or backward, between hope and hate, between unity and division. We have to decide, do we still believe in honesty, decency, respect, freedom, justice and democracy? In this moment, we can see those we disagree with not as enemies, but as fellow Americans. Can we do that? Does character in public life still matter?

I believe you know the answer to these questions because I know you, the American people, and I know this, we are a great nation because we are a good people.