Archive for February 2020

Botswana, home to 130,000 elephants, is auctioning off the rights to hunt and kill 70 of these animals. A ban on hunting elephants was lifted last May, and every year, Botswana issues 272 hunting licenses. Neighboring Zimbabwe allows 500 elephants to be hunted each year. I am not opposed to hunting. Though it’s not something…

This is one of the most interesting things I’ve heard recently: Nervousness is a normal, natural, healthy response to situations that are new, frightening, difficult, exciting, and potentially dangerous. Anxiety is the unnatural, unhealthy response to situations that would not typically produce a similar response in others. The problem is that so many people equate…

In case you’re a new reader (or perhaps forgotten): Almost a decade ago, I proposed a new job idea: Professional best man It remains a role that I am waiting to fill. Let me explain. Although I’ve met many outstanding best men in my role as a wedding DJ, I also meet many who are…

As I watched the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday, I found myself wondering if Jennifer Lopez and Shakira were lip syncing their performance. It sure looked like it. I turned to the Internet for answers and discovered that most Super Bowl halftime performers lip sync at least some of their act. So, too, does…

On episode #84 of the Speak Up Storytelling podcast, I analyze my own story “Turtle” in an episode we call Storytelling Forensics. LINKS Purchase Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life Through the Power of Storytelling Purchase Twenty-one Truths About Love Homework for Life: https://bit.ly/2f9ZPne Matthew Dicks’s website: https://matthewdicks.com Matthew Dicks’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/matthewjohndicks…

Here’s the problem with the parents of children older than your own: Parents extrapolate. They assume that their experiences will be your experiences, even though almost every variable in their parenting equation is different than every variable in your own equation. I hate this so very much. These doomsayers assume that their struggles will be…

I did not enjoy the Super Bowl very much this year. After watching the Patriots play in three straight Super Bowls and 4 of the last 5 (and 5 of the last 8), it’s no fun watching two other teams play in the big game. Spoiled? Sure. The team that I love, whose games I…

If you’re a regular reader, you know that I recommend keeping a running record of what I call “Moments of Note” during the course of the year as a means of preserving the most meaningful events of the year. It’s my way of not allowing any year to slip away without notice (which is what…

PERSONAL FITNESS 1. Don’t die. My annual physical was filled with good news. My cholesterol is slightly elevated, but my calcium scoring (an indication of the likely amount of plaque in my arteries by scanning the calcium build-up in my heart) was zero, and all my other numbers were good. I’m eating more oatmeal and…