My relationship with words is a complicated one; my parents did not provide the best environment for me to grow up in, and I found solace, guidance, and wisdom in prose, poetry, and music. I have always been drawn to words that have meaning beyond the words and spaces used to build them, and of the many things I have read and heard, the words of Neil Peart have had the most profound impact on me.

Emotion and poetry - written or lyrical - are joined tightly together. Tears spring to my eyes when reading or hearing Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night by Dylan Thomas, as all of my emotions around my grandfather come surging forward. When I hear Beautiful Boy I’m transported back to the hospital when Alex was born, and At Last immediately reminds me of an early date with my future wife.

Resilience is an interesting concept, and one we tend to view as a positive. It carries connotations of being able to push through a problem, survive an injustice, or just get things done. I’ve been described as resilient many times in my life; yet underneath that outward veneer there was a mess underneath. My goal was always to somehow rebalance the system; when the storm raged inside my goal was always to figure out a way to calm it.

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Potatoes The mnemonic above was how I first learned the names of the planets in the solar system; it’s a bit dated now, since we have consigned “potatoes” to the realm of the dwarf planet and removed them from the list of first-class planetary bodies. A brief perusal through this blog will show that I like to find poetry, lyrics, and prose that have meaning beyond the words and spaces used to build them.

Growing up, sports were a big part of my life. Unfortunately, being born in Northeast Ohio in the 1970’s meant that you were doomed to watch all your local sports franchise struggle. The Indians, Browns, and Cavaliers were always just good enough to make you care…but then when they had a chance to grab the brass ring they would always disappoint you. Of all the sports, my favorite was baseball.