Leadership – Perpetual Adoration

May 12, 2018

A Surprise Question When I Donated Blood

Last month, I scheduled a time to donate blood at the Red Cross. In order to save time, prior to showing up for my appointment, I logged onto the Red Cross website and answered all the preliminary questions that I’m required to answer before I can donate blood. The questions were designed to allow the Red Cross to determine any blood safety risks that may be present.

May 5, 2018

Healthy Paranoia vs Healthy Fear

Last week, I wrote about the importance of practicing healthy paranoia. The definition of “paranoia” is “a tendency on the part of an individual or group toward excessive or irrational suspiciousness and distrustfulness of others.” My definition of “healthy paranoia” is “the intentional practice on the part of a person to be reasonably and rationally suspicious and distrustful of people who the person is not intimately familiar with, so the person can guard against unanticipated surprises and dangers.”

April 28, 2018

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Paranoia

I’ve written before about Shark Tank, the television show that features business owners who make presentations to wealthy investors who are referred to as “sharks.” Each of the sharks is an experienced entrepreneur who became wealthy by successfully starting and growing multiple businesses.

April 14, 2018

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A Local Lawyer is Sent to Prison

A local lawyer who I know — I’ll call him Rick — was recently sentenced by a federal court judge to 60 days in prison for taking money that belonged to one of his elderly clients. The Lawyer is in his mid-sixties. I want to share with you a letter that I sent to him after the judge handed down the sentence. I think you will agree that the advice that I shared with him would be of benefit to anyone. The sending of the letter was what I considered to be a spiritual work of mercy. Here’s what I wrote in the letter:

April 7, 2018

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An April Fool’s Game

In honor of April Fool’s Day, which was on Easter Sunday this year, I thought it would be fun to play a simple April Fool’s game. Maybe I can fool you with a quote. I’m going to give you the quote and then see if you can guess the name of the person who made the statement that I quoted.

February 10, 2018

The Death of a Special Christ-Like Priest

Georgette and I met on August 4, 1978, when we were both 21 years old. We were married in June 1980, while I was on break from law school. Ten months later, in March 1981, we had our first child, Harry. I graduated from law school in May of the following year.

October 7, 2017

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What is a Bump Stock?

If you pay any attention to the news, you know about the massacre that took place in Las Vegas on Sunday, October 1, 2017. The evidence so far indicates that there was a lone gunman on the 32nd floor of a major hotel who repeatedly shot bullets into a large crowd.

September 23, 2017

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A Modern-Day Booby Trap

In the home that I grew up in, we were limited in the amount of time we could watch TV. My mom hated seeing her children sitting on the couch watching TV. It was common for her to come into the family room unannounced, walk over to the TV, and shut it off. This frequently happened while we were in the middle of a show. After turning off the TV, Mom would order us to go outside and play.

September 16, 2017

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Railroaded into Saying a Simple Prayer

Last week, I ran into an old client at the Peoria County Courthouse. For the purpose of this article, I’m going to call him Noah. I represented Noah more than 20 years ago for some serious alcohol-related traffic ticket violations. During the last case that I assisted him with, I told him that it was obvious to everyone who knew him that he had a problem with alcohol. He became angry with me and refused to admit that he had an alcohol problem. After that, he continued to get into trouble with the law, but stopped coming to me for assistance.