Turns out, that a stupid idea, in any other language, is still stupid. I’m on a bus in northern Russia. Our small group consisted of my future mother-in-law, a friend named George, and me. We were headed somewhere in town. My Russian skills then, like now, were nonexistent, but I…

The Army Reserve, Haircuts, and could you please stop asking me that? — I’m sitting in a barbershop in Northwest Arkansas probably 15 years ago when the obligatory barber conversation started: Me: “Just give me a low fade, kinda like a national guard cut.” Barber: “Oh, are you retired?” I frown and stay silent for a minute. Because, well, ‘one of these things…

Being called father by any other name is just as great — As a new paternal unit, I pondered what I wanted to be called by our children. For some reason, I wanted them to call me Papa. I’m not sure why. Maybe because that's what their mother had always called her paternal unit in Russia where she was born and raised. …

I’m six years old. And like normal six-year-olds, I am fidgety, shifting my little body back and forth in a wooden church pew in a community called Plateau, which, by the way, most people mispronounce. I’m clutching coins in my hands. They’re mostly pennies, a few nickels, and some dimes…

Why I Despise this type of “Motivation” — Did I just use a big hairy spider to induce you to read my article about fear? Yes. Yes, I did. A friend invited my wife and me out to supper once. I thought it strange that there were about 20 other couples there also. …

My grandmother’s gift to her new husband would later become a blessing to her as well. — When they got married in 1903, in Alabama, my paternal grandfather (Ollie Manning) could not read. I am sure this was common in this area of Alabama in the early twentieth century. Probably common to lots of people during this time. My grandfather was a carpenter, so he could work…

Baldwin Square is not just another city park to me — Before it was a park in the middle of the now “heavily populated” Satsuma, Alabama, under a canopy of oaks and home to a few billion squirrels, there stood a small wood-framed house with a detached garage, or as I liked to remember it — our horse barn. We didn’t…

Not everyone sees the happiness you may be sharing I twirled her around a few times while the soft moonlight filtered and fractured its way through the frozen branches of a row of nearby birch trees. It was this magical moment that one simply cannot replicate in the warm and…

What is your facial hair hiding? — I was a grown man before I decided to shave off that awful mustache. And, I’ve never looked back. The impetus for change? A girl. A stunning and multi-lingual college-age Russian who was a part of a group of other college girls assigned as translators for a motley crew of…