“No man is more important than the The Team. No coach is more important than The Team. The Team, The Team, The Team, and if we think that way, all of us, everything that you do, you take into consideration what effect does it have on my Team?” - Bo Schembechler

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When I was seven years old, I fell in love for the first time.

Not with the cute girl next door, my second-grade teacher, or any of the other usual targets of a boy’s first crush.

I fell in love with the game of football.

More specifically, college football.

Even more specifically, University of Michigan football.

I didn’t come from a family of sports enthusiasts. The guys in my family were outdoorsmen, hunters, and fishermen.

But in September of 1985, I found myself sitting in our living room with the Michigan-Notre Dame game on our TV. And my life was never the same.

I was mesmerized by the pageantry and the emotion of the game. Over 100,000 people crammed into “The Big House” in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and every play seemed as though the future of the entire world depended on it.

Michigan won the game 20-12, so naturally, I became a Michigan fan that day.

For the better part of the next thirty years, I didn’t miss a Michigan football game. Not one. I missed family events, dates with girlfriends, funerals, and weddings (who gets married on a Saturday during college football season, anyhow?), but never a Michigan football game.

As that 1985 season rolled along, I became aware of just how much I could love something. I watched every game that season, and as the final game approached, I was about to find out that I could hate something just as passionately.

As Michigan prepared for the last game of the regular season, I learned about The Game. Every year, in the last game of the season, Michigan plays its biggest rival, Ohio State. I lived in Ohio, and I never got the memo that you were supposed to root for the team from your home state.

Growing up among all these Buckeye fans was tough, and it just made me hate everything in scarlet and gray even more. Many of my best friends were Ohio State fans, and we would argue back and forth all year about who was better until The Game rolled around and it was finally settled. Then, the winner would have about five minutes of bragging rights, and the debate would begin again. And the cycle continued.

Memories of my youth are littered with great moments from The Game. I was watching in 1991 when Desmond Howard struck the Heisman pose in the endzone, putting an exclamation point on his Heisman Trophy-winning season.

I was there in 1996 when Shawn Springs of the Buckeyes slipped, leaving Tai Streets open for the only touchdown of the game, as Michigan upset the undefeated Buckeyes in Columbus.

I was in the stands in Ohio Stadium in 2006 for “The Game of the Century” when the two teams met, undefeated, and ranked #1 and #2 in the country. Even though my beloved Wolverines lost by three that day, it was the best game I’ve ever been to. Everyone in that stadium was on their feet for the entire three and a half hours.

Sometimes, just the mention of a phrase or the note of a song can take me back to those moments in Ann Arbor or Columbus. The “fuck Lloyd Carr” chants from the Buckeye fans. The “four more years” chants from Michigan fans directed at the Ohio State students. A nod to the fact that Michigan’s academics far surpassed that of Ohio State and a claim that many of Ohio State’s students would need an extra four years to graduate. And of course, the Dead Schembechlers, the Columbus band satirically named after Michigan’s iconic coach, and their “We Don’t Give a Damn For the Whole State of Michigan” song, whose lyrics are still burnt in my head, nearly a decade after my last trip to The Game.

The hate is real. And it makes The Game that much more special. It is the greatest rivalry in sports. Sorry, SEC fans and Duke/North Carolina basketball fans. Your rivalries may be great, but they’re not quite Michigan-Ohio State level.

This year, The Game is especially big. Not only are Michigan and Ohio State both undefeated heading into today’s matchup, but Michigan is in the midst of a huge controversy. They have been accused of sending personnel to the games of other teams and video-taping the team’s coaching staff sending signals into the players. Recording and deciphering these signals could give a team an advantage on the field. It helps when you know what play the other team is going to run.

After two decades of dominance in The Game by Ohio State, Michigan has easily won the last two years. It has been a glorious two years if you are a Michigan fan. But now, with these allegations, there is also the sentiment by many that Michigan only won the last two years thanks to their breaking of the rules.

If they lose this year, the narrative will most definitely be that it was the cheating that put them over the top. I’ve been shocked at how much this has bothered me. I desperately want to be able to say that Michigan was the better team, fair and square.

It seems silly to let something like this get to me. It is, after all, just a game. There are real problems in the world. There is poverty, war, and climate change. Personally, I have more significant concerns, like my daughter’s education and my family’s health and financial well-being.

As the years have passed, college football has become a less significant part of my life. I don’t even watch all of Michigan’s games anymore. They have been replaced with gymnastics meets and dance recitals. And sometimes, with simply a nice day at the park with my daughter on a beautiful Saturday in October.

But I never miss The Game. It is my escape from reality. I don’t watch TV or movies. But every year for three and half hours, nothing matters except for the outcome of some game played by a bunch of college kids.

Sometimes, it can be freeing for something with no direct impact on your life to carry so much meaning. It takes me back to a more carefree time when the outcome of The Game meant everything to me.

Besides, I don’t want to listen to all those Buckeye fans claim the cheating was responsible for the last two years’ success.

So, in a few hours, I will be standing in my living room in front of my TV. I will be nervous and anxious. My hands will be a little sweaty. I will spend three and a half hours reacting to every play as though my life depended on it. I will scream with delight when Michigan scores and throw something across the room when their hated opponent does.

And in many ways, it will all seem silly. Because it is, after all, just a game.

But it’s a damn big one.

And first loves die hard.

“The best inheritance a parent can give his children is a few minutes of his time each day.” - O.A. Battista

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Happy Halloween!

“Dad, can you snuggle with me tonight?” my daughter asked as she rolled over, threw her arm across my abdomen, and rested her head on my chest.

“Yes, babe, I’ll snuggle you.”

I reached over and grabbed my phone off the nightstand.

With blurry eyes, I read the large white digits.

4:56

It wasn’t nighttime any longer. It was morning. My alarm was going to go off in four minutes.

This is how my day began early this morning.

I get up at 5:00 AM 95% of the time. Saturdays and Sundays included. It is when I get my things done - workouts, reading, writing, walks with my camera, and anything else I want to do. It allows me to do these things and still be absolutely present with my family and spend as much time with them as possible.

The last few weeks, I have struggled to find time to write. October is a busy month at work, so even my early mornings were often spoken for. It is when all departments prepare their budgets for the following year. Every budget runs through me. You can imagine the excitement.

Because of this, I haven’t written anything in three weeks. Not a sentence.

I had plans of getting up this morning and finally tackling a topic I’ve been thinking about for a while. I knew we had a packed day today, so I pulled up all my notes on the topic last night before bed so there would be no wasted time this morning. Then I laid down in bed with my wife and my daughter to watch a movie. It had been a fun day of dressing up in Halloween costumes and trick-or-treating. We had all eaten too much candy, and I think I was the first to crash from my sugar high. My guess is my wife was next because she hadn’t bothered to take my daughter to her room.

I looked back at my phone.

4:57

I unlocked it, went to the clock app, and turned my alarm off.

I don’t know when my daughter will ask me to snuggle with her for the last time, but just in case it was this morning, I wasn’t going to miss it.

For the next two and a half hours, I listened to each of her breaths and watched her head rise and fall with each of mine. When she woke up, she turned her head, looked into my eyes, and then wrapped her arms around my neck.

“I love you, Dad.”

“I love you too, sweetheart.”

Photo(s) of the Week

I know one day, she will leave to travel down her own path. Thank goodness that day wasn't today.

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” - Marcus Aurelius

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Happy Sunday!

This weekend, I attended a family birthday party. Also at the party was my cousin’s little boy. He’s four years old and a spitting image of his dad. I’ve never seen a father-son resemblance so striking.

My cousin became a father at the age of thirty-two. He was proud and the happiest I had ever seen him. He had experienced some struggles in life, but things seemed to be looking up for him. I was beyond happy for him. We talked about how incredible it was to be a dad and how much we both enjoyed it. I thought it was the best thing that could’ve happened to him.

Four months after his son came into this world, my cousin was taken out of it. He was killed in a car wreck on Labor Day weekend four years ago.

He was nine years younger than me. I held him as a baby. Thirty-two years later, I carried him to his final resting place. Usually, when you are my age or younger, the people around you who die are those you’ve never known the world without, not those you can remember coming into it. When you have witnessed the entire span of someone's life, it makes you acutely aware of just how short life is.

As I watched his son run and play at the birthday party, I thought about how proud he would be of him. I thought about all the things he has missed out on over the past four years and everything he will miss out on throughout his son’s life.

Then I looked at my daughter running and playing, and all I could think about was how fortunate I am to be here. How happy I am to have the opportunity to come home each night and lie in bed and read with her. And all the amazing things I've experienced in the six and a half years since she was born.

In short, it made me realize how lucky I am.

If you’re reading this, you’re lucky too.

Photo(s) of the Week

My favorite tree on our property. A large maple whose branches feel as though they stretch out forever.

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” - Bertrand Russell

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Happy Sunday!

So…..um…..how’s it going?

I’ll be honest. I don’t have much to say this week.

I haven’t written anything worth sharing (wait, have I ever?), and I was short on time this week. What time I did have, I spent playing around with my camera. It’s fall in Ohio, which is the most beautiful season by far, so there is plenty to photograph.

I’ve become slightly addicted to editing my photography and find it more enjoyable than I would have ever guessed. I always considered myself somewhat of a naturalist when it came to photography. Meaning that I thought the way a photograph was taken was the way it should be seen. However, after taking ’s Photography for Creatives Course this summer, I have a whole new attitude towards the editing process.

It can be incredibly time-consuming, so sometimes it feels like a waste to spend so much time on one photo, but I also find it somewhat relaxing. I recently transitioned from Lightroom to Lightroom Classic. It’s not cloud-based like Lightroom is, but I love how it can help organize the photos on your computer. You can set it to automatically rename your photos upon import and easily keep everything organized from then on. It’s brought some much-needed order to the chaotic heap that was my photo library.

If you have any experience with Lightroom or Lightroom Classic and prefer one over the other, I’d love to hear your thoughts on them. Or, if you are interested in finding out more about either one, feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email with your question.

Photo(s) of the Week

These are some photos from my Saturday morning walk. Nothing beats fall.

Random Thought

Few things provide as much value per dollar spent as a good bungee cord.

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“I don’t get no respect, no respect at all!” - Rodney Dangerfield

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Happy Sunday!

No Respect

Last week, a report was released that stated that the Earth is beyond six of nine defined planetary boundaries. What that means is that we have breached the level considered a safe operating space for humanity.

How we got here is a long story and one not without controversy. Climate change, like everything else, has become politicized to an almost laughable degree. So much so that we can’t agree on what science is telling us. Or, for that matter, what science even is.

As someone who believes climate change is real and that there are things we can do to fix it, I often wonder if arguing about the science of it all is where we go wrong.

There may be a simpler, much more rudimentary problem we need to discuss.

Respect.

Remember when you were a kid, and your parents taught you to respect your stuff and that of others? Like when they taught you not to cut the heads off all your He-Man action figures because you thought that made Skeletor’s death more realistic. Or when they made you clean your room instead of letting clothes build up on the floor so thick that you could walk anywhere in the room without touching the carpet.

Let’s get back to the basics.

We treat our planet the same way the 200 people who used to show up at my house in college for keg parties treated that house.

As if we’re just passing through for a night of fun, and someone else will worry about the disaster left behind in the morning. No respect for the house or the poor fuckers who have to deal with the aftermath.

We are cutting down all the trees without a second thought about whether or not the next generation may want to see them.

We are filling the oceans with plastic. So much so that someday, if there aren’t already, there will be parts, like my bedroom above, where you will be able to glide across the plastic without touching the water.

But someone will have to clean up that mess.

What if, and I’m just spitballing here, we treated our planet with the same respect we show our homes? What if we maintained it, cleaned it, and were careful about what we brought into it? What if we thought about how our actions may impact others with whom we share the planet. Or what if we thought about those who will be there in the morning, cleaning up the mess from the night before?

Our kids and grandkids.

What if we had a little respect for them?

An Excellent Rebuttal

Last week, I wrote about my struggle with being a creator (I’m using that term REALLY loosely) and some of the things that come along with it, like sharing details of my life and being active on social media.

One of my readers, who is also a fellow writer, had an excellent rebuttal to my essay. And when I say rebuttal, what I mean is he looked at the other side of the coin in the most insightful and thoughtful way possible and then took the time to share his thoughts with me.

I’m sharing the comment he left on my newsletter because if a part of you agreed with everything I said last week, you should hear the other side as well.

I have always felt the very same way as you do Randy. The guy with no camera is also my idea of a real hero, and I'm glad you shared his story. None-the-less, motivated by the desire to share something of value and benefit to a wider audience, I've made a concerted effort to get over my extreme reticence to share my thoughts, creativity, and work life more publicly online. I took that step also with the fear that I wouldn't like myself for joining the hordes of online attention seekers.

Personally, I've been very pleasantly surprised that the intelligence of the universe seems to pervade all realms, even the internet! The mysterious "powers that be" have seen to it, that despite my efforts, I remain invisible and unknown to more than 8 billion people on planet earth. And of those who do catch a glimpse of me in the digital world, perhaps .0001% of them take notice. Even fewer care to engage. By some magical selection process, I continue to stumble upon rare gems of the human species, and have my own preciousness reflected back to me in mutual regard.

I can honestly say I am deeply grateful to have met and learned something of the lives of this small percentage of our planet's population, you among them, and many others who are writers. And I take nourishment and joy from hearing their stories.

I've been a lone wolf my whole life, keeping to myself, not asking for help, and not being particularly generous with offering it either. This online game has given me a chance to feel like I actually belong to the human community, that I can count myself as a part of a whole, rather than an isolated misfit who just doesn't deserve a place around the campfire sharing stories.

Who knows, I might change my opinion or my mind at some point, but for now, I am absolutely delighted with the discovery I'm making. That sharing myself quite freely does not disturb the sanctuary of my inner life. In fact, just the opposite. As I reach out, something even bigger grows inside. And that something is being given lawful protection in the process.

It is as though I am a tree by nature that has been afraid that by putting out leaves I would endanger my roots. But sending out visible branches only drives the roots deeper, making them more stable, more private, more unknowable. The more I share, the greater the reservoir of all that can never be told about me becomes.

Still, I resonate with and respect your point of view on this. I think there is a place for the men with no camera, people with no diary, no social media account, and not an ounce of compulsion to record, review or inventory the passing of their lives. Just living and sharing the example of their enoughness as they go. We need such people.

For now, I've set that form of identity aside. I'm personally running an experiment to learn the difference between idiot exposure and authentic human sharing. So far, I have been unable to learn that difference by withholding.

Thank you to , who writes , for this comment. If you aren’t already subscribed to his newsletter, you should be.

Photo(s) of the Week

On our last vacation, we spent an evening walking around this island in the middle of the lake. There was nothing on it. No signs a human had ever been there (although they have.) My daughter didn’t want to leave; she enjoyed every minute, simply exploring and climbing the rocks.

My hope is that places like this will continue to exist so my grandkids can do the same.

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“I don’t know why people are so keen to put the details of their private life in public; they forget that invisibility is a superpower.” - Banksy

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Happy Sunday!

Is it possible to be a creator when you don’t want to be seen or heard?

That probably sounds crazy.

What I’m trying to say is, I don’t like to share.

I don’t enjoy telling people about what I am working on or what I am doing. And by default, I think less of people who do.

There, I said it.

That sentiment sums up a major struggle of mine since I began writing a year and a half ago. I have hesitated to say it out loud because it goes against the “build-in-public,” "your story matters," or “write for the person two steps behind you” mentality that is so prevalent in the writing groups I have been a part of.

My biggest issue with writing, distribution, and being an active member of platforms like Twitter (X) comes down to that fact. It’s not that I’m afraid to publish my thoughts or worry about what others will think.

I’m worried about what I will think. Of myself.

I think less of people who make their private lives public. Even those who share tactfully have always had a special place at the bottom of my "people I hope to hang out with" list.

And yet, for the last year and a half, I’ve used my writing to do just that: share parts of my life (in fact, by telling you my feelings on this topic, I am doing it right now.)

And it makes me like myself less.

Not only do I have a natural disdain for those who overshare, I have an equal level of admiration for those who do the opposite. Those individuals who could fill a New York Times best-seller list, but you would never expect it.

During a summer in college, I met one of these people. He was married to a lady I worked with at my summer job.

One day, at a company gathering, I found myself sitting next to him, sharing a bottle of Jack Daniels. He looked like a cowboy, and as our conversation progressed, I discovered my initial impression wasn't far off.

He was into horses. Not million-dollar thoroughbreds for breeding or racing. Just regular old horses that he traveled the country and even parts of the world with so he could horseback ride and camp in places many of us will never see.

He didn't exactly volunteer most of this information. My nagging questions (along with the help of Jack) pulled most of it out of him.

At one point, I made a statement along the lines of, "You must have some incredible pictures of all of these places."

His answer was quick and succinct but has stuck in my head for over two decades.

"Nah, man, pictures wouldn't do it justice."

"So, you don't have any pictures?" I asked.

"I don't own a camera," he replied.

I had one other conversation with that gentleman in my life, for a total of two. And I can tell you, I've thought about him way more often than anyone I've ever seen on social media.

There is something incredibly noble to me about doing something for the sake of doing it, without the need to share it with the world or, for that matter, anyone else at all.

For most of my life, I like to think that's how I lived. No social media. No sending my thoughts to complete strangers through email. And no feelings of having to capture something worth sharing.

Since beginning this newsletter, there have been times when I have caught myself, in moments that should have been personal, thinking, "This will be great to write about," or "I need to get a pic of this to use at some point in the future."

And I don't like it.

All of our lives are becoming marketing material. Another cog in the social media machine that is underlying our economy.

I don't know if I'm built for that. I want my life to be enjoyable, meaningful, and memorable. For me and those closest to me.

I don't want it to be marketable, shared with the world willy-nilly, and valued based on views and likes.

And most importantly, I just want to like myself.

Photo(s) of the Week

Invisibility IS a superpower.

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“I love older things that people have used and cherished. They have personality, character, and soul.” - Anna Hillegass

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Happy Sunday!

Like last week, here are a few ideas that have been bouncing around my head. There might be something to one or more of these, or I could forget about all of this by tomorrow.

The Things I Enjoy Not Knowing

Twenty years ago, when the company I work for was building our first real offices, my boss (who is also the owner and one of my best friends) asked if I wanted to come in that weekend and help him run the electrical wiring for the new offices. 

Neither one of us knew anything about electrical work, but that’s how small startup companies in rural Ohio get things done. You don’t bring in investors through a seed round to raise money. You figure out how to do stuff on your own. Stuff that you probably shouldn’t be doing.

When he asked, the first smart-ass response that came to mind was, “No thanks, electrical work is one of those things I enjoy not knowing.”

It was a throw-away comment, but for some reason, it stuck with my friend. Over the last two decades, I’ve heard him use it hundreds of times in meetings, while sitting at the bar, and everywhere in between. And each time he does, he gives me that knowing glance. 

I’ve never thought about what the phrase meant because when I initially said it, I really didn’t mean anything. As I said, it was the first smart-ass thing that popped into my head. But, a few weeks ago, he used it in a meeting, and for some reason, it hit differently. 

There actually are things I enjoy not knowing because not knowing those things makes room for what I do enjoy. Or that I want to know. 

When we figure out what things are unimportant to us or our families, eliminating those things can bring us more joy. 

For me, some of the things I enjoy not knowing are

• Whatever the latest hit series on Netflix is (I’ve never even had a Netflix account)

• The trending topics on any social media platform (this probably goes without saying)

• The latest gossip in the workplace (I carefully limit how much time I spend talking to co-workers about anything not work-related)

• Anything involving the Kardashians

• Who the latest front-runners are for the Republican nomination for President

When people ask me about these topics, I thoroughly enjoy being able to answer their questions with a blank stare and a quick, “I have no idea what you are talking about.” 

I don't even have to fake it.

These things consume none of my time, giving me more time to focus on the important stuff. More of the important stuff brings more joy. 

It took me decades to realize that there really are things I enjoy not knowing. 

I bet there are things you enjoy not knowing, too…..even if you aren’t aware of it.

Is Jealousy a Bad Thing?

I don't often get jealous. I'm a pretty simple guy with basic needs. If someone has a fancier car or nicer home than me, it's probably not even going to register.

But there is someone I am incredibly jealous of.

This summer, we returned to a familiar vacation spot that I've been going to since I was a kid. It is a beautiful lake surrounded by wilderness and hours from any significant civilization.

We visited with a couple of my relatives who are lucky enough to live in this paradise three months out of the year. They have an 800-square-foot cabin that is only accessible by boat, has no electricity, no running water, an outdoor shitter, an outdoor shower house with water pumped to it directly from the lake by a small generator, and the closest neighbor is a mile and a half boat ride away.

I am so fucking jealous of these people I can't stand it.

But I don't think that's a bad thing. It's not that my jealousy causes me to wish anything bad upon them. I just want something they have. Or, at least, something very similar.

To me, this is motivation. Through them, I have seen and experienced something that I want. Now, it is up to me to make it happen.

Like anything, if taken too far, I'm sure jealousy can be horrible. But in this case, I don't feel it is an inherently bad thing, and I think overall, it gets a bad wrap.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Nothing Ain’t Cool ‘til You Wear the New Off

The older I get, the more enamored I become with old things.

To a degree, this has always been the case, but it's becoming more so. I love things that are beaten up, broken in, and worn down.

I get so upset when one of my favorite items, which I've had for years or decades, finally needs replacing. And I get this incredible joy from making something last years longer than it should.

I remember my Dad being this way and my Grandparents. I thought it was just because they were old.

So, either I am old now, or there is another underlying factor.

Photo(s) of the Week

A pic from our last vacation of the summer.

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

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Happy Sunday!

As I mentioned last week, I took a small break from writing this summer, and other than a few audiobooks I listened to on some long drives, I took a break from consuming information as well.

Those long drives and some solo time in the kayak did give me plenty of time to think, though. And that can be dangerous. I have a lot of half-baked thoughts and ideas, so over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be dumping some of them in your lap. Maybe some of these will eventually blossom into full-fledged essays or at least something more buttoned up than what I’m about to share now.

Then again, maybe they won’t.

Time Management

My inability to do everything on my list has made me wonder if I’m just really bad at time management. I’ve never felt like this was an issue of mine, but lately, I’m questioning it. When I look around, it seems like some people are getting 10x more shit done than I am.

By writing that, I’m not insinuating that I think the solution is for me to follow every goddamn Twitter productivity account. In fact, the solution is probably just the opposite.

I am, however, starting to get curious about how others manage their time. But, I need to be selective about who I talk to. No offense to all the single people out there without kids, but if you’re thinking in your head right now, “It’s easy to find time to get things done if those things are important enough to you,” you can keep that advice to yourself. I used to have plenty of time to do shit too.

However, if you are someone who has a full-time job, spends a couple of nights a week at your kids’ practices, loses an entire weekend here and there to gymnastics competitions, is managing a side hustle or two, serves on the board of two organizations and acts as the treasurer for another, and still manages to check everything off your list, then you’re in my demographic.

If that sounds like you, hit me up. I'm interested in what you have to say.

Nothing Is Original

As I said above, I did manage to listen to a few audiobooks this summer, and I’m more convinced than ever that 98% of everything on Twitter (and probably social media, in general) can be traced back to like six books.

The fact that everyone borrows from everyone else when creating something is no secret, and we’ve all heard the popular phrases, “imitate, then innovate,” “steal like an artist,” and “good artists copy, great artists steal.” Still, I feel like we’re abusing the privilege to borrow.

I know some of you will say it’s no big deal and it’s always been that way, but it does make me wonder what new ideas we aren’t discovering or thinking about because we are constantly reiterating someone else’s.

Are the Kids Alright?

A few weeks ago, I walked in on a conversation between my daughter and some of her cousins. One of them was showing off her new fitness tracker and explaining to the others how she had taken more steps and burned more calories than most of her friends that month.

She’s fucking ten.

I don't think I would have been any more appalled if I had walked in on them watching porn on their Ipads.

Remember when ten-year-olds just went outside and played? When they burned so many calories from playing sports all day or riding their bikes, they could eat all the junk food they wanted and never gain a pound.

I place fitness trackers right up there with social media in the downfall of our society.

Everything we do doesn’t need to be turned into a goddamn spreadsheet and compared to our neighbors.

The fact that a ten-year-old thinks about steps and calories is insane to me. Kids should just be living. And if the lives they are living aren’t naturally taking care of the things a fitness tracker is meant to track, strapping a device to their wrist to remind them to move isn’t solving the problem.

We are turning everything into a task, a chart, or a goal that needs to be achieved. And it’s trickling down into our kids' lives. I worry that we aren’t far away from kids thinking that going outside and playing is something you do to increase the numbers on your fitness tracker, not something you do because it’s fun.

And in case anyone is wondering, I do own an Apple watch, which can act as a fitness tracker. But I don’t think I have ever looked at my steps taken or calories burnt or minutes exercised once in the five years I’ve owned one. I only got one because I rarely carry my phone with me on the weekends when I leave the house, and my wife got sick of being unable to get ahold of me. So, I got an Apple watch with built-in cellular connectivity. But the battery only lasts several hours when not connected to a phone, so I’m usually just wearing a really expensive bracelet.

Completely Random

The lids on the McDonald’s McFlurries are one of the worst designs of all time.

Photo(s) of the Week

An early Saturday morning walk through the park.

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“Go to a county fair, eat a bunch of fried Oreos, and then ride sketchy carnival rides until sick.” - Unknown

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Happy Sunday!

I’m back, baby!!!

In case you didn’t notice (and you probably didn’t), I missed sending out my newsletter last week. And the week before.

That’s the first time I’ve missed in ten months, and I didn’t half-ass it. I missed two in a row. I didn’t set out to miss two, or even one, for that matter. It just happened. The first week, I completely forgot that I wrote a newsletter. We were getting ready to head out on a family vacation (one that I was particularly excited about), and I completely blanked on the fact that I hadn’t written anything that week. We were halfway to our destination on Saturday when it hit me. I was up early Sunday morning before everyone else, so technically, I had time to put something together but decided not to.

And it felt kind of good.

The following week, we had just returned from our vacation, and it was the same scenario. I could have thrown something together, but decided to roll with the non-publishing vibes for an extra week.

I know it’s the “in” thing to take a sabbatical from work to write, but I took a mini-sabbatical from writing to work and do other things. I have to say, I get why they’re so popular.

That brings us to now, and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m on the struggle bus this week, trying to get back in the groove of writing and publishing.

So, I’m going to give this my best “guy returning from a sabbatical, but still unsure if he should be” try.

Here we go.

A Trip to the Fair

Summer’s officially over in my book. I know that because my daughter’s back in school, we made our annual trip to the county fair this weekend, and I’ve been scarfing down as much fresh sweet corn as possible. All the usual signs that we’ve moved on to a new season, even if the calendar says otherwise.

Speaking of the calendar, our little venture to the county fair made it evident that the pages of that thing keep getting ripped off, and I’m not getting any younger.

My daughter was big enough to ride some of the larger rides this year, which we were both pumped for. I hadn't been on any really good rides since my daughter was born, and that type of thing is usually my jam. The higher, the faster, the better. I’ve done all of the standard thrill-seeking activities: bungee jumping, skydiving, etc., so I really didn’t think there would be anything at the fair that would bring my stomach to the top of my throat.

I was wrong.

Some of these rides were no joke. I honestly couldn’t believe they let my daughter on them. I was so goddamn dizzy after one of them I had to hold the railing so I didn’t fall on my ass getting off the thing. "What's wrong, Dad? That wasn't even that fast," my daughter said as we made our way to the next ride. "Right," I thought to myself, "not that fast."

Is this what getting old is like? Because, if so, it sucks. I’ve heard other people talk about being unable to do these types of things as they get older because they get too dizzy, experience vertigo, or their stomachs can’t take it anymore, but I didn’t think I would ever get to that point.

I always assumed that as my daughter got older, we would be the perfect duo for tackling any amusement park's biggest and scariest attractions. My wife isn’t big on thrill rides, and my daughter has no limits when it comes to this stuff, so I figured this would always be something we would share. But after this weekend, I’m questioning how many more years I will qualify before she kicks me off the team for someone else.

Don’t get me wrong, despite feeling the effects of these rides more than I ever have, we had a blast together, and I enjoyed every bit of it.

Almost.

Until the Monkey Maze.

The Monkey Maze was your typical funhouse-type attraction. My daughter loved it, and we must have gone through it twenty times. (By the way, when you go to the fair, always buy the ride band. It seems expensive at first, but when your daughter decides to do the same attraction twenty times, it pays for itself.)

This particular funhouse had one of those long tubes that spins as you try to run through it. My daughter thought it was awesome, so she would get in it and just stay there running in place forever. I would have to make her get out when other kids would start to get backed up behind her.

Over and over, we did this.

And then disaster struck.

My daughter’s shoe fell off while she was inside the tube. As she bent down to pick it up, she lost her balance and went down. She was now rolling around inside the tube, yelling for me to help in the most panicked voice I have ever heard from her.

I was already out of the tube, so I jumped back in. I bent down and attempted to grab her with one hand and her shoe with the other. Except I lost my balance and failed to grab either. Now I was rolling around this tube, like Humpty Dumpty on a human-sized hamster wheel. She was starting to panic more, and I managed to help her out of the tube (if you call pushing her in the ass with my foot as I tumbled head over heels helping her out.)

I still consider myself to be a pretty athletic guy, but for the life of me, I couldn’t get my damn feet under me, so I was trying to crawl towards the end of the tube as if I was a college kid the morning after a keg party doing my damnedest to get to the toilet.

By now, a group of nine-year-olds had gathered at the entrance and were waiting to get in, but they were hesitating because they were watching this grown man get tossed around like a rag doll inside a washing machine.

I could hear them laughing, and I’d be lying if I said at that moment, I wasn’t thinking about crawling back to the beginning of the tube and dragging their little asses in there with me. I was also having visions of myself being the next viral video on TikTok.

I finally made it out with my daughter’s shoe. However, instead of being relieved that I was still alive or ecstatic that I was able to return her shoe to her, she seemed more mortified that her Dad had just become that night’s comedic entertainment for this particular group of kids.

She grabbed her shoe, turned around, and walked away from me. As I got to my feet, I heard one of the kids who had just entered the tunnel say, “How could anyone fall down in here? It’s not even that fast.”

Photo(s) of the Week

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words.” - Ansel Adams

Happy Sunday!

For the last couple of months, I've spent a lot of time messing around with photography. At least, it's been a lot of time relative to how much free time I've had. And I have thoroughly been enjoying myself. Even my wife commented on how happy I seemed while doing it.

This led me to wonder if there are some mental health benefits to photography. So I did a little research, and it turns out there are. I've listed a few of them below.

• It requires us to focus on the present.

  Photography requires concentration. This draws our attention away from the daily stresses of life, which can be therapeutic, offering a mental break similar to meditation.

• It gives us a way to express emotions.

  Photos can help express feelings that may be difficult to put into words. Every photo tells a story, and sharing these stories can provide an emotional release. It provides a shift in perspective.

• Photography encourages us to look at our surroundings in new ways. When we do this, we appreciate the world around us and are less likely to take it for granted.

• It encourages us to interact with nature.

  Certain types of photography, such as landscape and wildlife photography, require us to be outdoors, and time spent in nature has been shown to reduce anxiety and improve well-being.

You don't have to be a professional or have the best gear to get these benefits, so grab whatever camera you have and get out and take some photos.

A Little Help

I need some input on an idea I have, so I’m asking you all for help. Let’s just say, hypothetically, that someone was starting a photography business that wasn’t going to specialize in any one type of photography but would do anything from portraits to product photography to maternity shoots, and they wanted a cool, somewhat edgy name for it. Which of the following would you choose?

• Aperture Anarchy Photography

• Fractured Focus Photography

• Ethereal Exposure Photography

• Intentional Distortion Photography

• Shattered Lens Photography

• Pixel Rebel Photography

• Now replace “Photography” with “Imagery” or “Images” in all of the above examples. Does that make any of them better?

I’d really appreciate it if you could take a second and comment below with your vote or shoot me an email. And if you think all of those suck and have something better, I’d love to hear it. But no weak shit like “Picture Perfect Photography” or “Shutterbug Studios.” 

Thanks in advance for the help!

Photo(s) of the Week

There is nothing spectacular about any of these photos other than they are some of the first I took with my new camera. It was delivered on Friday, and I spent a large part of Saturday testing it out, and holy shit, is this thing awesome.

After what felt like hundreds of hours of research, I ultimately decided on the Canon EOS R5 as my first foray into mirrorless cameras. It will take me months to figure out how to use it properly, but it will be worth it.

As you can see from the photos below, I have some incredible subjects to practice on. This is a summary of my Saturday morning and afternoon, where I shot almost 2,000 photos testing out different features of the camera. I don't have a real wildlife lens for it yet, so I had to crop in quite a bit on the eagles, but I was really impressed by how much detail the cropped images maintained.

My wife snapped the last pic. I was trying to teach my daughter how to skip rocks, and she threw in a small boulder when I wasn't looking, causing both of us to get splashed, which she thought was hilarious (it's my favorite one.)

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.” - Pedro Calderon de la Barca

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Happy Sunday!

The intense heat that’s been assaulting areas around the globe finally found its way to Ohio this week. We had multiple days in the mid 90s with extreme humidity to go with it, and if you listened closely, you could probably hear me bitching about it all the way from Ohio, regardless of where you live. 

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be heading north to Canada, visiting an area currently experiencing high temperatures in the mid 70s, which sounds absolutely delightful. It’ll be a week primarily off the grid with lots of kayaking and hopefully lots of practice on my landscape photography. 

So, the newsletter will continue to be short and to the point for at least a few more weeks. 

Now, let’s get to it.

The Real Fountain of Youth

According to this article from Euronews.com, studies show that living near green spaces can slow biological aging. In the studies, those who lived close to green areas had a biological age of 2.5 years less than those who did not.

Some of the benefits of spending more time in green spaces were a 33% reduction in the use of mental health and asthma medication and a 25% reduction in the need for high blood pressure medication. 

This isn’t at all shocking to me. In fact, I would argue that the more green, the greater the benefit. Last year on a trip to the same area that I referenced above, I noticed that many of the locals seemed to be in excellent shape and in remarkable health for their age. This was despite living what many would consider a “rough” life. Many lived off the land in many ways, even hunting and fishing for much of their food, but they were remarkably fit and physically capable. They live hours from the closest Walmart or Costco and are surrounded by miles and miles of wilderness, which seems to benefit them. 

I know many people love cities and have their arguments for them, but I don’t think anything beats a cabin in the woods, and it seems science (at least some of it) agrees.

Photo(s) of the Week

This is from a hike my wife and I went on that's just about three hours from where we live. Despite what many believe, we do have some areas in Ohio that are more than just farm fields.

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“The less we do to address climate change now, the more regulation we will have in the future.” - Bill Nye

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Happy Sunday!

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s been a teensy bit warm just about everywhere this summer. 

Somehow, here in Ohio, we’ve managed to avoid the mayhem. The temperatures have been pretty moderate, and this is coming from someone who hates hot weather.

Many places haven’t been as fortunate. Worldwide, people are suffering from mind-boggling heat. I don’t know how bad it has to get to convince everyone that global warming is a thing, but we have to be approaching that level.

If you haven't been paying attention to the global weather, here are seven almost unbelievable facts about this summer's heatwave.

• The first full week of July was the hottest global average temperature ever recorded, and experts expect that July will be the hottest month in 120,000 years.

• The heat index (the measure of how hot the air actually feels when temperature and humidity are factored in) is above 150F in parts of the Middle East.

• Death Valley in California reached 128F last Sunday.

• As of the time of writing this, there have been 20 straight days of heat above 110F in Phoenix, Arizona, which broke a record set in 1974.

• The Gulf of Mexico is boiling. Parts of the Florida Keys are experiencing water temperatures of 95F, with one spot measuring 97F. These temperatures are about five degrees higher than average and are causing concern for the Gulf coral reefs.

• Records are being set across China. In June, Beijing had temperatures of 104F two days in a row which had never happened before. And a small town in northwest China set a national record last week with a temperature of 126F.

• Canada is still burning. So far, in 2023, 9 million hectares have already burned, compared to a 10-year average of ~800,000 hectares.

If we don’t do something, actually, if we don’t do as much as possible to address climate change soon, this will become the new normal.

Parking Lots - Again

Several months ago, in my newsletter, I included an article about how Michigan State University had devised a clever way to solve a problem that has bothered me for years - empty parking lots.

Most parking lots spend most of their time sitting empty, and Michigan State found a great way to use that space by filling the lots with solar panels that were built so that cars could park underneath them.

Well, here’s some history on how we ended up with so many damn parking lots in the first place. No one covers topics like this with more humor than Climate Town. I highly recommend checking out their other videos as well.

Photo(s) of the Week

This picture looked great in person, but when I got home and looked at it on the computer, not so much.

I was going to scrap it but decided to do some heavy editing instead to see if I could take it in a completely different direction. I was fairly satisfied with the end result.

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.” - Sam Keen

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Happy Sunday!

Summer is flying by. For our family, summer isn't defined by the seasons but by my daughter's and wife's school and work schedules. Their twelve weeks off school is our summer, and it's already half over. 

It's been great so far, and we'll be doing our best to make the most of the next five weeks. I hope your summer's going great as well, and if not, there's still time to change that. 😀

Now, let's get to some links and a photo.

It’s All Connected

This article by George Monbiot (whose book, Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet, I recommended last week) summarizes the interconnectedness of our economic system, food supply, and climate change.

It’s short, but he does an excellent job of taking dozens of pages of notes that I have on these topics and cramming all of those thoughts into less than 1,100 words.

A Threat to Our National Parks

Climate Change is impacting all of the National Parks in the U.S., but none more than Denali National Park in Alaska.

This recent article from the Anchorage Daily News describes some of those impacts. There is a lot of talk in the article regarding the adverse economic effects on local businesses, and I have mixed feelings about this. Sometimes, I feel that monetizing these natural areas is part of the problem, and we should keep these areas as wild and hard to reach as possible. 

On the other hand, the reality is if people can’t easily visit these places and appreciate them, there will be less effort to save them.

The one thing that stood out to me in the article was the drastic temperature change in recent years. In 2014 the average temperatures in the park increased by 4.5F over the 30-year average of 31F. We simply can not sustain that rate of change.

Photo(s) of the Week

I’m continuing to play around with black and white in my photos. I have always preferred black-and-white photography for everything that’s not wildlife, but I’m finding it’s a little trickier to edit, which is the opposite of what I expected. 

This image shows the sun rising over an old family farm that I often pass on my morning walks.

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“If working apart we’re a force powerful enough to destabilise our planet, surely working together we are powerful enough to save it.” - Sir David Attenborough

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Happy Sunday!

I just returned home from vacation, and now it's time to play catch up.

Whenever I'm preparing for a vacation or catching up at work after taking one, I always wonder if it's worth it.

So, I did a little research to see if they actually have any benefit other than the good memories and photo ops, and it turns out they do.

Here are some benefits you can reap from taking some time away. 

1. They reduce stress - Even with the work of preparing for the trip and catching up afterward, science says there is still an overall reduction in stress when we go on vacations. This can lead to better sleep, lower blood pressure, and a boost in our mood.

2. They stimulate creativity - Even after returning home to our regular routines, our exposure to new experiences and cultures can continue to help spark new ideas.

3. They can enhance productivity - The rest and relaxation gained from vacations can lead to enhanced productivity by improving our focus and performance once we return to work. 

So, if you're like me and sometimes wonder if vacations are worth the work that goes into them, you can relax. Science says they are.

The Hottest Week Ever?

According to the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction, this past week set new records for average global air temperature.

Monday set a record of 17.01C, only to be surpassed on Tuesday by a new record of 17.18C.

It's worth noting that the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said they could not validate the numbers, as they only monitor global temperatures and records on a monthly and annual basis, not daily.

But they did have this to say.

"We recognise that we are in a warm period due to climate change, and combined with El Nino and hot summer conditions, we're seeing record warm surface temperatures being recorded at many locations across the globe."

You can check out the complete article in The Guardian here.

My Favorite Books on Climate

There are a lot of books out there on climate change, and if you are new to the space, it can be difficult figuring out where to start. 

These books are 3 of my favorite and are a great place to start. Think of it as the climate activist starter pack.

1. Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed To Reverse Global Warming - Paul Hawken

   This book covers the 100 most effective ways to reverse global warming. That may sound like a lot, but the optimism and science-backed research make it an incredibly entertaining read.

2. Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet - George Monbiot 

   Farming is one of the greatest contributors to climate change. Regenesis tackles this problem and offers solutions to feeding billions of people without destroying our planet.

3. Doughnut Economics - Kate Raworth 

   There is no more significant contributor to climate change than our economic system itself, and Doughnut Economics takes a deep look at how we can change this system so that the planet can prosper, as well as every person on it.

   ---

   Photo(s) of the Week

   I decided to play around with black and white on this pic of a rose covered in morning dew.

   

   I hope you all have a great week!

   If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

   Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

   randy

“The vacation we often need is freedom from our own mind.” - Jack Adam Weber

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Happy Sunday!

As I promised last week, this newsletter will be short and sweet. There wasn't much time for writing (or anything else) this week as we prepared for vacation. Preparing for a trip always stresses me out, but if everything goes well, I should be at my destination by the time you receive this email.

Enjoy the links below, and for those who celebrate, have a Happy Fourth!

Vanilla the chimp

You have to check out this article about a chimp who, for the first time in her 28-year life, got to see the sky and feel what it was like to exist outside of a cage.

In the video, you can see her being encouraged to come out of her cage by another chimp. When she finally emerges and looks to the sky, the look on her face is priceless.

I know how I feel after sitting in an office all week. I can only imagine what it must be like for these incredibly intelligent and curious creatures to spend their entire life in a cage and how amazing it must have felt for her to finally be able to wander an open field on her own.

Prince Ea

This is an old video by Prince Ea that I recently rediscovered.

Nothing I can say will add anything of meaning, so do yourself a favor and take five and a half minutes to watch it.

Photo(s) of the Week

I captured this little guy fishing a few nights ago. And while I didn't get the shot of him catching his dinner, I do like the photo, especially the reflection in the water.

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy things they don’t want, to impress people that they don’t like.” - Will Rogers

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Happy Sunday!

It’s summertime. That means my wife and daughter are off work and school for the next couple of months, and we’ll be going on a few family vacations. So, my bandwidth for writing is at a low point right now.

For that reason, I will try to keep my newsletters short and succinct for the next two months. 

Starting next week.

Today, I’m taking a look at the Diderot Effect. I stumbled upon this idea recently while researching the history of consumerism, a topic I want to write a lot more about in the future. I believe consumerism is one of the chief problems that need to be addressed if we are going to stand a chance against climate change. We simply can’t sustain the rates at which we are currently producing and consuming.

I have a lot of thoughts on this topic. Too many. So, today we’re just looking at one tiny sliver of the problem.

The Diderot Effect is an interesting consumer behavior. It is named after the French philosopher Denis Diderot, who, in 1769, wrote a fictional essay titled “Regrets on Parting with My Old Dressing Gown” about the phenomenon.

The underlying principle of the Diderot Effect is simple. Purchasing one new item, whether it is something we need or not, often turns into the purchase of several additional items that we most likely do not need. 

In Diderot’s essay, he was gifted a new scarlet gown. Diderot was not a wealthy individual, and he was depressed that his other belongings did not measure up to the extravagant gown. So he began to purchase new items that were both unnecessary and beyond his means in an attempt to match the lavishness of his new gift. 

This ultimately led to indebtedness and despair for Diderot, who wrote in the essay that he had become enslaved to the new gown.

When I first read Diderot’s essay, I thought, “That’s a nice story with a good lesson, but who would do that?”

It turns out I do it all the time.

Not long after reading about the Diderot Effect, I fell victim to it in the most perfect way possible. 

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that I am finally taking the time to learn photography and focus on improving my skills in photographing wildlife. 

So, I decided to upgrade my camera. I didn’t “need” a new camera. I wanted one. I researched the latest cameras on the market and decided on one that would cost a few thousand dollars. Expensive, but an investment I was willing to make. Or so I thought. 

More research revealed that many of the lenses I own wouldn’t work with the new camera, so I needed some new lenses. My memory cards wouldn’t work either, so I needed to purchase new (more expensive) memory cards. And since I was going to spend so much on all this new equipment, I thought I should get a new (“better”) camera bag to protect all of it.

$9,600

That’s what my shopping cart totaled by the time I got done adding all the accessories and extra “needs” to get the most out of my new camera.

WTF??

I thought I was too smart to fall victim to such silly behavior, but I was clearly wrong.

And as if it isn’t hard enough to avoid this trap on our own, retailers are well aware of this weakness and use it to their advantage. 

When you buy something online, and the little box pops up showing you items that work well with your purchase, they are attempting to trigger the Diderot Effect. After all, it would be a shame to use that crappy old monitor of yours with that blazing-fast computer you just purchased, right? Better get a new monitor too.

The Diderot Effect is just one facet of the consumerist economy we all live in. A system created to convince us that more is better and that happiness is one purchase away. 

The next time you make a new purchase, don’t fall victim to the Diderot Effect like I almost did. 

By the way, I’m still shopping for a new camera.

Photos(s) of the Week

I’m not the only one in our house who's been focusing on their photography skills. My daughter has taken an interest as well. I now have to fight her for camera time.

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly-that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.” - Anne Lamott

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Happy Sunday and Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

If you're fortunate enough to still have your dad around, be sure to pay him a visit, or at the very least, give him a call. He'll be glad you did. And someday, you will be too.

What will you pass on?

On September 8, 2019, the thing I had dreaded my entire life happened.

I lost one of my parents.

At 62 years old, my Dad suddenly and unexpectedly passed away.

The man I had more disagreements with than any human being on the planet but who also had stood up for me and defended me more than any other was gone.

The idea of losing a parent was always unfathomable to me, and it was every bit as bad as I expected.

Not only had I lost someone, but I had also lost something. I had lost a connection to a simpler life that my Dad had never left behind.

My Dad was old school. He was a hunt and skin his own food, fix it himself instead of calling a repairman, screw your protein shake and give me a jack and coke, fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke type of guy.

Dad was born in 1956, but in many ways, you would have thought he had been born in 1856. He grew up living off the land. My Grandma had a garden that supplied all of the family’s vegetables, and my Grandpa spent weekends during hunting season making sure there was enough meat stockpiled to get through the year.

While my Dad did evolve with the times a little, no one was going to pull the old school out of him. When he died, his freezer was full of deer, goose, duck, and pheasant meat. All of which he had personally harvested.

He would go on weekend trips to hunt for wild mushrooms, then spend hours cleaning and preparing them just right, using family recipes passed down for generations.

While he was a hunter and took down more than his fair share of animals, no one respected nature and wildlife more. His relationship with the land reminded me of something akin to that of the Native Americans—a deep, profound respect with an almost religious sentiment.

He must have seen 10,000 whitetail deer in his life, but every time he saw one, it was as if it was the first time. There was a child-like enthusiasm that would both make me shake my head and smile.

And nothing would light a fire under him like someone wasting a kill. You ate what you killed and, in some instances, even wore it.

His favorite place in the world was an old hunting cabin in the mountains of Pennsylvania, where my family hunted for decades. Sitting on thousands of acres and owned by a family friend, it was my Dad’s playground.

The cabin, like my Dad, was basic and straightforward. In the middle of the mountains. No electric. No running water. Heated by the wood you chopped.

You bathed in a makeshift shower in the back of the cabin with two five-gallon buckets, one with holes drilled in the bottom, and water collected from the spring in front of the cabin. He was taking cold showers before they became the magic cure to the world’s productivity problems.

This was my Dad’s dream home. Simple and surrounded by nature.

While I never became the hunter my Dad was, I did inherit his love and respect for nature. And his penchant for escaping into the wilderness, away from all the distractions of today’s modern world.

He did his part to make sure this was the case. As a young kid, instead of bedtime stories, we studied bird books. One page at a time. The first time through, with the names uncovered. On the second pass, it was my job to remember the names while he hid them beneath his fingers.

I’ve forgotten the names of more birds than most people will ever know.

I had my first pair of binoculars before I could ride a bike. We had more binoculars than people in our house, and my Dad kept a pair in every vehicle just in case he unexpectedly stumbled upon some wildlife.

Growing up this way, I always had a love of the outdoors. But the older I get, the stronger that love grows.

With each year that passes, my appreciation for the natural world and this simple kind of life deepens as I find myself rebelling more and more against many of today's societal norms.

And nowhere do I feel as close to my Dad as when I am out in nature. It's as if he's there beside me. Each interaction with wildlife feels like a hello from somewhere unknown. Oddly enough, I sometimes feel closer to him now than when he was here.

This appreciation for the world around me is the greatest thing my Dad could have left me. Not only did we enjoy it together, but he has given me something I can enjoy for the rest of my life. Something I can pass on and share with my daughter. And in many ways, something I can still share with him.

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share it with friends.

randy

“We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone.” - Katie Thurmes

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Happy Sunday!

I’m really excited, folks.

For the next two weeks, I will be taking part in cohort 2 of ’s Photography for Creatives course. Photography, particularly wildlife photography, is something I have wanted to learn for a long time.

If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you know I love nature and being out in it. Many of our family vacations consist of long days on hiking trails and then crashing on an air mattress in a camping tent at night.

Years ago, my wife and I thought it would be a great idea to buy a nice camera and some fancy lenses to capture all the amazing wildlife we came across on our hikes.

After buying all the equipment, we thought the photography would take care of itself. I thought for sure I was going to be the next great wildlife photographer, with my shots featured in wildlife magazines around the world. Just buy good equipment, and you magically get good results, right?

Turns out, that’s not how this photography stuff works. Despite having the equipment for 13-14 years, I have never put in the effort to really learn how to use it. I’ve taken a lot of pictures, but unfortunately, most of them aren’t of the greatest quality.

Learning the craft is one of those things I have wanted to do for so long but haven’t made the time for. Now I am, and I’m incredibly pumped about it.

Because of this, I have found the perfect replacement for my Best of Twitter segment in the newsletter. I'm going to end my regular Sunday newsletters with the Photo(s) of the Week segment. This will give me additional motivation to keep practicing and learning long after the course is over. You can check out the debut of Photo(s) of the Week below.

Why Photograph Wildlife?

There is nothing as beautiful as what we can find in nature. No building, painting, cathedral, or other work of art can touch what nature has to offer. That’s a hill I’m willing to die on, and it’s one of the reasons why climate change and the constant development of wilderness for agricultural and industrial use is such an important topic to me.

I’m terrified that my grandchildren won’t have the opportunity to experience wildlife in its natural habitat the way I have. That they won’t be able to walk down to the lake and see deer drinking from a brook or an eagle swooping down to grab a fish.

Attempting to capture these things while they still exist is important. And hopefully, combining images of those events with my newsletter will help me play some small role in bringing attention to the issues that concern me.

It’s also incredibly relaxing and therapeutic. A certain sense of calmness comes from being out in nature early in the morning, as dawn breaks, when much of the wildlife is most active, that can’t be replicated.

I’m really not a writer at heart. I always say I’m just a guy who writes. But I think I am a photographer at heart, at least of certain subjects. So, I hope that with some training and practice, I’ll become more than just a guy who takes pictures and finally feel comfortable calling myself a photographer.

Photo(s) of the Week

I’ve been bringing my camera with me on all my morning walks lately, and the other day I was down by the lake and grabbed these shots of an eagle coming in to land in a tree. Once he landed, I tried to move in closer, but I was making him uncomfortable. He kept shifting his position on the branch, and he was as busy watching me as I was him.

I hope you all have a great week!

If you want to see more of my work, please visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“Children should enjoy the few years they have just being a kid.” - Dwayne Hickman

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Happy Sunday!

I’m writing this early Sunday morning as I prepare to spend the day at my daughter’s dance recital—two back-to-back shows. We arrive at 11:30 AM, and if we’re lucky, we’ll be out of the building around 8:00 PM.

I love going to my daughter’s events, whether it’s dance or gymnastics, but after yesterday’s full dress rehearsal, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about the possible negative effects this could have on my daughter.

I understand a lot of work goes into these recitals, and the instructors want everything to be perfect. And for the older dancers who have been doing this for 10, 12, or even 15 years, this is what they have worked towards their entire lives. After years of being the background dancers, they now get to be the stars.

But some of these kids are five and six years old. And the way they are evaluated to ensure their makeup is perfect, they have no fly-aways (loose hairs that have escaped the maniacal grip of their ponytail,) and their leotard fits just right is a little alarming to me.

All my daughter wanted was to have fun with her friends and sneak into the “snack room” and eat a cookie or two. But she couldn’t because she might mess up her lipstick or get chocolate on her costume. All I could do was look at her and shrug my shoulders.

I don’t mind seeing these kids disciplined. Practicing, learning, and executing their moves teaches valuable lessons. But so much focus on their appearance feels dangerous.

recently wrote an excellent piece on the topic of body image, and it is stories like this that help drive my fear.

Are we instilling something in these girls at this young age that will stick with them into early adulthood? Something that tells them their value, at least partly, is based on how they look.

And then there is the stress.

The atmosphere wasn’t light-hearted and fun. It was tense and strained. It didn’t feel as though anyone was enjoying themselves. Moms were irritable towards their daughters. The instructors were snappy with the moms. Everyone looked exhausted.

My daughter wanted to join dance because she loves the act of dancing. Last night she told me she no longer wants to dance after the recital. I felt incredibly sad when she told me this. She will spend hours dancing around the house, mimicking her favorite dance moves from Disney movies, and loving every minute of it. But, as with many other things, we adults have found a way to suck the fun out of something kids naturally enjoy doing.

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt if, every once in a while, we just sat back, ate a cookie, and let kids be kids.

That’s it for this week.

As always, I would love to hear from you.

• If you read something here that resonates with you, leave a comment.

• If you would like to discuss something further, shoot me an email.

• If there was something you absolutely hated, @ me on Twitter.

And if there is something you think I should be writing about, please let me know.

If you want to see more of my work, visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy

“Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

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Happy Sunday and Happy (early) Memorial Day!

This is going to be a quick one. 

It’s a long weekend here in the U.S., and I’m busy spending as much of it as possible with family. I didn’t even want to think about writing this weekend. 

But I did want to say Thank You to all the families out there who have lost loved ones serving our country.

It can be easy to forget that the purpose of Memorial Day isn’t for all of us to get a great deal on a used car. It’s to honor those who have fallen, fighting for and defending our country.

So, if you know someone who has lost a loved one while serving, maybe reach out tomorrow and thank them for their sacrifice. 

And if you want to go the extra mile, you can donate to an organization like Children of Fallen Patriots. They are a non-profit whose mission “is to provide college scholarships and educational counseling to military children who have lost a parent in the line of duty.”

I’m leaving you with a picture I took yesterday morning on my walk. I’m not a religious person, but this image was too eye-catching to pass up. 

That’s it for this week.

As always, I would love to hear from you.

• If you read something here that resonates with you, leave a comment.

• If you would like to discuss something further, shoot me an email.

• If there was something you absolutely hated, @ me on Twitter.

And if there is something you think I should be writing about, please let me know.

If you want to see more of my work, visit chasinganswers.co.

Thank you for reading, and if you liked what you read, please share.

randy