Alan C. Fox's Blog, page 13

I’m newly married. As you might expect, this means I’m making changes in my life. This morning I began to work on selling my vacation home in the San Juan Islands, a home I built more than twenty-five years ago. It’s a beautiful place, surrounded by tall trees, where my family and I spent many joyful days.

Michael is the general contractor who built my Friday Harbor home and has helped to maintain it ever since.  Over the years we’ve become good friends, sharing our life experiences, our hope...

A friend of mine, Barbara, has a son, Ben, who is a junior at a private high school in Los Angeles.  Ever since he was a toddler Barbara has taught Ben to be nice. Ben is respectful and polite. He is also smart and full of ambition to make his fortune and to save the world.

One serious problem for both Barbara and Ben is that many of the other parents at the same school want their sons and daughters to grow up to be CEOs, and think that to become a successful executive they must not only be a...

Each of us has hopes, dreams, and plans for the future. I’m extremely goal oriented, which means that I always have in mind a list of my goals and priorities.

For example, one of my top priorities is health. This is the sine qua non (“without this nothing”) of my life.

But how about those big life goals – relationships, family, money, work? What are the two or three biggest goals in your life? A happy relationship? Being the best in the world at a certain profession? Becoming a millionaire?

M...

When I was first married at age twenty-one I knew almost everything there was to know about marriage.  Today, a few marriages and more than fifty years later, I have come to realize that I don’t know as much now as I did then.

But I do know this:  Marriage is a team sport.  It might not “take two to Tango,” because you could dance with an imaginary partner.  But it does take two to enjoy a marriage, and both of you have to be real.  Here are some of the rules of the marriage game as I now kno...

“I love to sniff roses.”

That‘s the thought-provoking statement I woke up to this morning.

When Sprite and I talk to each other there is often music behind the words, allusions that deepen the meaning.

“Say more,” I said.

“I love the fragrance of roses. I like to smell them as often as I can,” said Sprite.  “It’s part of living a full life every day.”

I kissed her, and then she continued.

“When my daughter was young I hugged and kissed her as much as I could.  I wanted to squeeze as much as p...

Our wedding celebration is four weeks in the rearview mirror, our honeymoon slipped into the scrapbook of precious memories, and now I’m at my desk wondering if I can write something worth your reading.

A friend asked us at dinner last night how it felt to be back.  I wasn’t sure how to answer that question.  When in doubt, tell it like it is.  I said, “Mixed.”

It took me ten days of being away to fully relax, so I’m glad we were gone for a total of twenty-five days.  But it took me just one...

See me in the photo?  Perhaps you need a hint?  There’s the captain of the raft.  She’s wearing the blue helmet, paddle in hand.  And there’s Sprite, yellow helmet on the right.  Smiling.

Me?  I’m trapped beneath a red helmet, front left.  Most of me is under water.  I’m not smiling.  I’m freezing.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.  After all, we were in Queenstown, New Zealand, home of outdoor adventure.  And even on a honeymoon those warm comfy hotel rooms with stunning lake views can...

On the day of our New Zealand hike we were late to meet our guide because Sprite volunteered to go back and retrieve the small folding chair I had left in our room.

The drill-sergeant-like woman who leaped out of the van reminded me of a Brunnhilde, so I called her “B”.

She took one look at me and said, “You’re three minutes late.  We have a five-mile hike.  It’s mostly uphill.”  I thought our travel agent had arranged a two-mile hike, already pushing my limit, but I wanted to demonstrate my...

I only write to meet a deadline.  No deadline, no writing.

Of course, the deadline for my writing this blog is self-imposed, and for more than three years I have met every weekly “deadline,” including emailing one blog to my assistant on a Monday at 10:45 pm so that she could post it for Tuesday morning delivery.

I was urged by Nancy, my friend and editor, to “get ahead” by writing three or four blogs before I left on vacation last Monday.  She also suggested that it would be alright if I too...

The party is over and most of our guests have gone.  Frank Sinatra is singing in the next room where Sprite is laughing with her sisters.  I am happy.

The food, the flowers, the cake have vanished.  Empty tables and chairs wait to be retrieved by the rental company. In the morning Sprite and I will fly to Hawaii.

Earlier, at the ceremony, Sprite was so touched by the smiling faces of all of our friends and family assembled to wish us well that she had asked for a Kleenex before she walked int...