“There are things that upset us. That’s not quite what we’re talking about here, though. I’m thinking rather about those images or words or ideas that drop like trapdoors beneath us, throwing us out of our safe, sane world into a place much more dark and less welcoming. Our hearts skip a ratatat drumbeat in […]

Lately, I have been immersing myself in the life of the Brontes because I am in love with their books (Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) and also because Charlotte, Emily, and Anne amaze and inspire me.  These young women lived through incredible loss and hardship, (that’s a whole other blog), and still […]

What do you tell a woman with two black eyes? Nothing. You’ve already told her twice.   I’ve heard this joke my entire career. Just about every single year, someone on the job will feel inclined to recite it to me usually in response to domestic abuse that has occurred on a call or in […]

    Every hero doesn’t go do this great big hero thing.  They do the simple thing over and over and over.  And they have the persistence and they stick to it.   * No matter how much technology has evolved, it comes back to human will, human chutzpah, human resilience.         […]

Freedom and security do not coexist.  One must choose between a life of freedom or a life of safety.  Often we feel the threat to freedom is Out There, external–the Taliban, ISIS, Communism, etc.  But the true threat lies within–our own government, society’s expectations, and the limitations we place on our imagination about what is […]

It’s Sunday morning in Dade County, Florida.  I’m working on Engine 66 and so far, before noon, we’ve run on a woman suffering from delirium tremens due to alcohol withdrawal, a “male having a breakdown”, threatening to kill himself and his wife, and a sweet 93 year old lady born in 1921.  So much for […]

I’m a sucker for commencement speeches.  I love them.  And this one by Admiral William McRaven at University of Texas, Austin, is one of my favorites.  There is so much deep wisdom here.   As Navy Times puts it, “Adm. Bill McRaven is a badass — and fount of good advice.”  He’s been a Navy Seal […]

I’m reading Dirty Work by one of my favorite writers, Larry Brown, a Captain from Oxford FD.  In this excerpt, a boy has been beat up by a bully.  When the boy returns home and his mother sees what’s happened she shows him no pity and instead gives him a piece of her mind.  This […]

Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell is the reason I read—to be utterly transported to another place and dropped deep into a culture I didn’t know existed and would never otherwise experience.  It is to be placed into another person’s mind and upon leaving, feel as if your consciousness has been slightly altered forever.   Ree […]

Triple F is a mindset.  An attitude.  It’s a determination to forge our mind, body, and spirit into an indomitable flame.  Indomitable means “impossible to subdue or defeat” and flame is pure energy and light, so I find indomitable flame an inspiring metaphor for human potential.  To become this indomitable flame means taking the path […]