Wondering how "Black Friday" got its name, I did some basic googling. One theory is that the phrase was first coined by Phidelphia Police in reference to all of the automobile and pedestrian traffic on this busiest of shopping days.

Now that Inside Out has hit the stores, I thought I would add just a few words about it. First, I guess you can say that I did an “analog beta test.” I read this story without the benefit of illustrations to a middle school assembly and in some classrooms in my hometown.

I make no holier-than-thow claims, and I have done my share of visits to Home Depot and Target etc. I remember when a mall was a novelty - Roosevelt Field, Long Island, was the first one known to me.

If this is your first blog read, I don’t profess to “know” that there is a God nor do I endorse creationism as a substitute for science. Rather, I simply believe that there is a spiritual element to existence that is perfectly compatible with science and our quest to know all that is knowable. Science is not heresy, but rather an essential component of man’s drive to learn and improve.

“On God and Baseball”

In the “battle” over the existence [or not] of God, there are two schools - generally described as believers and non-believers. To state the obvious, the believers believe in God and, in some instances, they attribute this belief to personal experience and inspiration; they may even claim to “know” that there is a God. Non-believers, to the contrary, will point to science and deny the existence of God; some claim to be quite sure that there is no God, perhaps again claiming to “know” this to be true. And so, regrettably, the battle lines are drawn.

Well, here I go. Most of my writing on adult subjects has a strong religious and spiritual subtext. Recent interactions on the internet have further piqued my fascination with God, god, gods, religion, spiritualism, humanism, atheism, and various iterations in between.

Were we to walk down the street and observe someone with a deformed and mangled extremity, would if ever occur to us to comment, “Hey, check out the loser with the funky hand.” Similarly, if someone took ill and became riddled with blisters, would we even think of commenting pejoratively on their appearance? Of course not, that would be cruel, inhuman, uncivilized.

As parents, there are few lessons more important than that of teaching our children personal responsibility and the importance of good choices. Indeed, a closing comment in my 2009 children’s book on prejudice deals precisely with judging other by their choices not their appearance.

First, let me say that I have been depressed and been around those suffering from clinical depression. I know first-hand how absolutely debilitating and paralyzing it can be.

On observing human interactions, it seems to me that the smart people seem to ask the most questions while those less cerebrally-endowned seem to have all the answers.

As some of you may know, one of my hobbies is model building: ships, airplanes, other stuff. Right now I am building an aircraft carrier model with some help from Lucas. Sitting on the shelf, awaiting some attention is a “ginormous” model of the Starship Enterprise NCC-1701 (“no bloody a, b, or c”!). I have ordered some specialty kits for lighting etc., and if I ever start, this will be a long project – and a labor of love.

Learn from others and adapt, but also respect your own style and resist changes to it unless you yourself believe that the proposed change improves it. There are many styles of writing and many do’s and don’ts. Remember to distinguish dogma – like good grammar – from doctrine like style.

Yes; there is corruption and “ill gotten gains" Yes, there are people who thrive through the misuse and exploitation of others. However, I believed now as I believed growing up that this is more the exception than the rule.

turn.
I will not linger endlessly on this point, but it seems to me that every generation is destined to have its music imprint on it in its critical teen and early twenty years. And no music is likely to mean the same thing to us again for the rest of our lives.

How often do we thank someone? What do we think merits a thank you? If someone is just doing their job, should we thank them? From my observations, a good many people would say “no, why thank someone for doing what they’re paid to do?!” A modest suggestion: Let’s all add a few more “thank you’s” to our daily interactions.

What do we do to ensure a meaningless and close-cropped conversation? We use our “sing-song” voice. We extend our words and close sentences with a prolonged syllable and a trailing inflection. “Hello; how are you?” become heelloooo, how arrrrrrre youuuuuu?’ and the tone streams upward with each extended syllable and trails off at the end.

There is something wonderful and intoxicating about being the “guest of honor.” Whether formal or informally recognized, you can observe the pecking order at any social gathering. The guests may include the very interesting “honored guest” comfortably ”holding court” – someone it seems everyone wants to meet and impress.

We have all been there – a party, a picnic, a neighborhood event and you are suddenly engaged in a “conversation” that is little more than an ongoing monologue for the other party.

In my second book, subtitled, Helping Children Overcome Prejudice (publisher’s subtitle, not mine), I wrote about a herd of dinosaurs that learned to accept outwardly different dinosaurs into their herd. With the benefit of some reflection, I have come to think that although prejudice is by no means a virtue, it is only when coupled with arrogance that it is truly a danger.

We’ve all heard of writers block. I offer a solution – slow down and observe. You will find stories everywhere and drama everywhere, and even the occasional truly life-changing moment. I call them “magic moments,” a small seemingly inconsequential event that shakes you to the core, causes you to rethink your conceptions, (really misconceptions), and in which your mind is suddenly opened to new, maybe even wonderful, possibilities. I had such a moment on a New York subway of all places.