The Mansfield Newsletter Empowering you to overcome challenges and succeed “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” This may be one of the most iconic opening sentences in literature; it’s from Dickens’ book, A Tale of Two Cities. Iconic? Yes… but is it accurate? The next paragraph holds the answer. “(I)t was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it...
15 days ago • 6 min read
The Mansfield Newsletter Empowering you to overcome challenges and succeed Have you ever experienced the phenomenon of doing, seeing, or hearing something and suddenly you start experiencing that “something” over and over via other people, places, or times? It seems to be everywhere – all at the same time. Maybe, it’s bumping across people from your home state… like an extended version of The Sopranos in New Jersey. Or maybe it’s your new car suddenly seems like everyone is driving…or...
29 days ago • 7 min read
The Mansfield Newsletter Empowering you to overcome challenges and succeed In my previous newsletter I suggested I might travel to my third-and-final 50th high school class reunion. It did happen. Last week I traveled to Mt. Clemens, Michigan to be with “kids” who attended 5th through 10th grade with me in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. (I transferred to a high school in So Cal midway through my Sophomore year.) It was a marvelous reunion evening that allowed me to process four key thoughts:...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
The Mansfield Newsletter Empowering you to overcome challenges and succeed My bride, Susan, and I just attended two separate high school reunions in the last few weeks and I’m getting ready for a third one in about twelve days – and all of the reunions are ours! Wait, people only graduate from one high school, what’s up? You’re correct. Here’s the simple solution - They are Susan’s reunion, Dennis’s reunion and … Dennis’s other reunion (I’ll get to that in a bit.) Though we didn’t meet until...
2 months ago • 8 min read
The Mansfield Newsletter Empowering you to overcome challenges and succeed Think of one of the most precious photos of yourself or your family in a lovely frame. Got it in your mind? Now close your eyes and imagine the framed image 100 years in the future… on a wall of a restaurant chain property that’s located on a truck route in Nebraska… And then shiver from the embarrassment? Arghhh… Maybe, maybe not. Let me start to unpack my thought. Years ago, while sitting in a local Cracker Barrel...
4 months ago • 5 min read
The Mansfield Newsletter Empowering you to overcome challenges and succeed There’s a slightly raised residential curb across the street from where I grew up as a high school kid. For whatever reason, on a June evening I ambled barefoot across the street and sat on it alone. I don’t recall being sad. I think I was somehow starting to distance myself from my own adolescence. In just a week or so I would head to basic training at West Point and then on into my future. I just sat and let my mind...
4 months ago • 6 min read
The Mansfield Newsletter Empowering you to overcome challenges and succeed I was once a very loud man. I don’t mean in a verbose and obnoxious way (though some might disagree on that… ha!) I was professionally loud and stirred up conflicts in the world of public policy, via media, legislation and initiatives. I saw trends and challenged them on television and on the radio. It got messy. At times, I described my job to reporters as a “sewer cleaner;” I descended into a pit of societal slime...
5 months ago • 6 min read
The Mansfield Newsletter Empowering you to overcome challenges and succeed A question that divides the generations? Maybe, maybe not… Do you listen to podcasts? You don’t? Hmm, well, you’re in good company, I suppose – that is, if you were born between 1946 and 1964. You’re a Baby Boomer. And when a Baby Boomer asks another more basic question, “What really IS a podcast?” the answers to both the two questions may slap them in the face. Or: You DO listen to podcasts…AND ARE NOT A BOOMER, just...
6 months ago • 5 min read
The Mansfield Newsletter Empowering you to overcome challenges and succeed Road trips are crazy. Take for example this one. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. (Didn’t click the link? Go back and please do so… you’ll be a changed person.) I’m not completely sure whether I like road trips or whether I just like the idea of road trips. Susan and I often take road trips from Idaho, down through Utah, over into Arizona and finally through Nevada to California. We take turns driving, changing seats when we...
7 months ago • 6 min read