Strange Bedfellows; War and Luxury Hotels History is full of instances where luxury hotels have played an interesting and purposeful role during war and conflict, often taking on their own lore and legendary status. Some famous ones are The Commodore in Beirut, The Holiday Inn in Sarajevo, and The Al Rashid in Baghdad. During conflicts,…
The Fallacy of Writing that Next Chapter If you convince yourself that you’re the author of your story, you may be creating a glitch in the system; your mind. You’ve heard that call to action many times, “Write your next chapter!” This statement is meant to empower us, to pick us up from the last…
Last week, we celebrated hundreds of years of combat prowess and fighting efficiency as the United States Marine Corps turned 246 years old on November 10th. I had the distinct honor of being invited as the guest speaker for the Marine Corps League’s Marine Birthday Ball Celebration in South Atlanta, Georgia, Detachment 1196. My main…
Despite the tremendous pain we feel for the loss of these 13 young souls to the Heavens, there remains a spark of light ignited by their actions. In the minutes, hours and days before their departure, they comforted the suffering and desperate. An enduring solace is found from the artifacts that show these 13 Warriors…
Mindset – The Key to the Kill House In 1992, I didn’t learn how to cultivate a desired mindset at a wellness retreat, sitting around a bunch of crosslegged participants intending to achieve a greater level of consciousness. I was taught it prior to entering a “Kill House” (aka Shoot House, or Tire House), where…
Paragons and Paladins Paragon applies to someone who is a model of perfection in some quality or trait. Someone who is the perfect embodiment of a concept, like a role model. If you ask a Cop who their role models are, chances are they will be other cops, individuals they learned from and tried to imitate. Cops…
It’s been ten years Dad. Ten years since you vanished from this place, ten years since the world has seen your face. While your soul is finally at peace, peace is often elusive for me. Ten…oh what an odd thing. Such an even and perfect sum. Yet it’s just a long start to the eternal…
While Halloween 2020 took a solid punch to the liver by COVID-19, it remains the reigning champion of holidays for camaraderie-building. In my opinion, it’s actually the healthiest holiday for kids. Now that might sound crazy due to all the candy in play, but I’m referring to mental health and social development. Let’s level set…
The City that Never Sleeps The first time I traveled to New York City was in 1996. I remember how breathtaking the city was from my window seat on the airplane. I can only imagine that same view must have been horrifying for the passengers of those two planes, 19 years ago today. During my…
It was the summer of 2003 and there was no shortage of tragedy and conflict in the world. The first quarter of the year saw the Space Shuttle Columbia explode and disintegrate as it reentered the Earth’s atmosphere, and the lead up to summer was consumed by the invasion of Iraq, which quickly evolved into a deadly insurgency.
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