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I never wanted to be like my father. Not because he wasn’t a good man, but because I wanted to forge my own way. He was old. He had old ideas. He was set in his ways. He was inflexible. Or so my brain thought at the time. I think the first time I realized…

Democracy Dies in Darkness is a phrase attributed to the Washington Post, a media company that focuses on news and journalism across the globe. The primary meaning of the phrase draws a parallel to the idea of light and darkness with the colloquial terms of knowledge and ignorance that we often use. To say that…

As of this writing, I have been on this earth for 69 years. That is 828 months, 3,558 weeks, 25,105 days, 604,440 hours, 36,266,400 minutes….and counting I have learned a few things along the way. In no particular order:

The Revelation Our eldest son Trevor married the love of his life on New Years Eve. Joanna is a wonderful and beautiful woman, both inside and out. We are incredibly proud of him and happy for them. What has that got to do with coaching you might ask? Well, it dawned on me during the…

“Nothing frightened me more than the faith in my young children’s eyes. How many men deserve that kind of trust? One by one, the mentors I’ve mostly admired eventually revealed chinks in their armour, cracks in their facades and tired feet of clay.” (Paraphrasing a favourite author, Greg Isles, in “Natchez Burning.”) We have two critical…

Now I completely understand if you are dead set against hunting – that is your prerogative. While this story is indeed about hunting, it is more about the folly around two seemingly intelligent human beings being toyed with by Mother Nature. It was humbling! I have hunted in the north since I was 17 years…

American standup comedian Tom Papa, talks about his children. Paraphrasing, he says: “You know, we all say we love our kids the same. But that is utter bullshit! Come on, be honest! We all have that one kid, that if he/she were to get lost in the woods, we would take just a littttttle more…

I knew him as Cookie before I knew him as John. On meeting this contradiction of a man for the first time, you might come away with the impression that he was this irascible, grumpy, miserable, chain smoking old coot. I think he liked it that way. The reality was that under that tough façade…

**Warning. If you are offended by the questioning of religious doctrine, please do not continue reading. Apologies to Cotton Eyed Joe – this isn’t about the song lyrics “Where did you come from and where did you go?” Though my wife Karen often screams that vociferously when she sees a spider scurry across her line…

He reminded me that it was time. When was I going to visit? We had exchanged emails or phone calls a couple times a year since we first met in 2010.  March 28 2023 was his 80th birthday. I called to wish him a Happy Birthday as was my habit. After a brief but cordial…