By now anyone who follows motor sports knows that IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon was killed yesterday (October 16) in the 12th lap of the Izod IndyCar season finale at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The two-time Indy 500 winner (and reigning Indy 500 champ) started at the back of the pack, and was racing toward…
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Greed ~ Enough is Enough!
As chaos overtakes Wall Street and cities around the country, and people rail in the streets against “the machine” in all its forms (corporate, financial, governmental), we in the St. James household have tried to maintain a sense of balance. We’ve tried to look at both sides, tried to understand each side’s perspective, and I…
Leaps of Faith ~ Here I Go Again!
Have you ever done something risky just because you felt in your heart of hearts it was the right thing to do? Maybe if you’re the praying type, you prayed first. If you’re the type who listens to your gut, maybe your gut told you it was the right thing to do. Maybe your loved…
Thank God for Alphas
Scene 1: I’m a patrol officer on duty with my partner. We see a man on a motorcycle roll through a stop sign in a semi-industrial, semi-residential neighborhood. We follow him for about a block before pulling him over. My partner and I get out of our cruiser and approach the man. He gets off…
Scale Phobia: Curse or Salvation?
Do you struggle with weight issues? If so, you’re not alone. According to a study published several months ago by the Trust for America’s Health, Americans, both adults and children, are getting fatter than ever. The “heaviest” state, Mississippi, has an adult obesity rate of 34.4%, and the thinnest (Colorado) of 19.8% This same study…
Lessons of 9/11
If you were like me and millions of other Americans, you spent yesterday, the tenth anniversary of the terror attacks on the U.S., remembering the innocents who lost their lives to an evil that was, before that day, unimaginable to most of us. If you were like me, you stopped to remember the brave police,…
It’s Labor Day ~ Do you labor for love or money?
When my children were in elementary school, our school district had a program known as the “Gifted and Talented Program,” or “G&T” for short. If your child was lucky enough to be one of the chosen, he or she would have access to special programs that would not only enlighten but challenge, to help prepare…
They Called Him Jackie
Eighty-three years ago today, just over a year before the big stock market crash of 1929, a baby boy was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. His parents, John and Mary, named him John as well, carrying forward a custom the family had brought with it from Wales during the prior century. Somehow they must have known…
I wish I were a plotter
In the writing world, there are “plotters” and there are “pantsers.” Plotters meticulously organize their writing with binders and whiteboards and storyboards filled with character charts and sticky notes that detail perfect three-act story arcs. Plotters not only know who their characters are, not only what they’re going to do in chapter five, but what…
A Voice from Silence ~ How I found my voice
I’m not sure when I began to fear public speaking, but that terror of getting in front of a group, or just voicing an opinion, has always been with me. Looking back, I think it must have been during my early school years (after being teased mercilessly by the kids at school for what, in…