Dear Friend, What is a real man? And how are we men supposed to live up to that standard? As a parent of two sons and two daughters, I am particularly driven to model the best male human being I can be. But what is a real man? Is a real man one of the [...]

Dear Friend, Our journey across North America left me with distinct impressions that I feel compelled to share. There were impacts that I had hoped for, those that I expected, and others that I was surprised by. I saw many different places but I also saw great homogeneity. I had hoped that this journeying experience [...]

Dear Friend, Life is full of difficult challenges, painful adjustments and thrilling surprises. But most of life is those moments in between. It is so easy to lose ourselves in focus on the emotionally powerful parts of our lives – those issues that make the greatest impression on us. But life is really all the [...]

Dear Friend, To be a great parent, is it better to try to always be on your best behavior around your kids, or to just be you, even if that means all of your flaws, hypocrisies and bad judgments are right out there in your children’s faces? It’s easy to talk about this, but when [...]

Dear Friend, Are you a ‘ Spontaneous Parent ‘? Sometimes I’m a stick-in-the-mud. The opportunity to do something exciting and new comes along, I have the money and time to do it, but I hesitate.  I’m waiting for something.  A sign from God, maybe?  I don’t know.  I want to be a spontaneous parent, but [...]

Dear Friend, It’s time for another kids travel with daddy trip. I have four kids.  Some years back I started a tradition with my first.  Each child gets to go on a big, exotic trip with their dad.  The child chooses the destination and activities.  And they get between one to two weeks of totally [...]

Dear Friend, I’m too fat. I came to terms with this fact recently when my wife mentioned a diet plan that she heard about at a local social gathering.  It’s called Medifast.  Maybe you’ve heard of it? Of course I knew about my rotund tendencies. They’ve plagued me my entire life. So when I heard [...]

Following Your Unique Life Path Dear Friend, I had a really weird dream last night.  I dreamed that I was in a parking lot with a woman. I don’t know who she was and I couldn’t see her face.  But she was clearly quite pregnant.  She said that she was about to have her baby [...]

Dear Friend, Do you feel enough joy? Does your lifestyle maximize your joyful experiences while minimizing those that are less, or even unpleasant? Is it OK to regularly pursue pleasurable experiences ?  Or should you feel guilty for being excessively selfish? Especially if there were more noble things you could have done at that moment? [...]

Dear Friend, You’ll never find happiness if you always play it safe. Take it from a guy who learned this the hard way. When things aren’t going so well, and pleasurable moments are few, the last thing you want to do is to take on more misery. If taking new risks in your life could [...]