In honor of Earth day today, I thought I might share some interesting facts:   • First celebrated in 1970, Earth Day is now is observed in over 190 countries.   • In 1969, peace activist John McConnell proposed a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace, to be celebrated on March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere.  

I have learned why I have become addicted to my iPhone and Social Media.   For background, please read my Friday With Fred blog of two weeks ago: I'm Addicted. It seems that when one garners a Facebook "Like" or comment it stimulates the body to produce the chemical dopamine and when that happens, as the great James Brown exclaimed, "I Feel Good!"

At Tuesday's meeting of the Long Island Women's Group, the guest speaker, Joshua Lafazan, told us how, as a high school student, he started an anti drunk driving program that provided safe and free rides to students to avoid driving while intoxicated or being a passenger. Three hundred and fifty rides were provided in 2016.

Recently its been coming up more and more, the importance of using your words carefully and intentionally. In my life, I've been pretty careless with words. I was raised in a clever, articulate, SARCASTIC household - mix in a little alcohol (maybe not a little) and you get desensitized to how things feel to others.

  If you know me at all, you know that I am not afraid of a podium or a microphone. But the process of preparing a eulogy for my father, someone who I have always looked up to and admired, was unlike any preparation I had done in the past.

I always thought of myself as a good patient. I rarely, if ever, take a sick day from work. In fact, I do not recall the last time I did. I push myself to get whatever I need to get finished, no matter how I feel.   Sunday, I woke up with an apparent stomach virus. I stayed in my room most of the day in my pajamas, alternating between complaining, sleeping, and whining about how bad I felt. Clearly, not good patient behavior.

The Doors second LP, Strange Days, featured a song, People Are Strange.   Strange days indeed as one consider the world around us (More on that later.).  

As I prepare to celebrate Easter with my family, I am reminded how fallible we, humans, are. Even bible printers 300 years ago made mistakes.   In New Jersey, a 300-year-old Bible at Christ Episcopal Church sits locked in a glass case, untouched since 1916. It's opened to Luke 20, and that is not random. There, on the heading of the left-hand page, is one of Christianity’s most infamous typos.