Ponderings by Dan Ponder

We occasionally find ourselves at different times in our lives that seem somewhat like crossroads, but they are more like boundaries.   There is the time behind us and the time ahead of us.   Thoughts of the past and the future fill our minds at the same time. Some of these times are obvious. …

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary makes the definition pretty simple.  A cousin is the child of your aunt or uncle.  Another definition is that cousin’s closest common ancestor is a grandparent.  In real life, cousins are so much more than that. My mother had a brother and a sister.  My father had a sister.  Collectively I had…

Labor Day is very different today than it was in 1894 when President Grover Cleveland signed a bill into law declaring it a national holiday. It was a time of great unrest with many Americans working seven days a week, 12 hours a day in low paying jobs. Children worked on farms, but also in…

For the past few days, the news cycle has been completely dominated by the news of Senator John McCain’s death from brain cancer at the age of 81. There is nothing I can say here about the man that you have not already heard.  However, I feel compelled to give my own thoughts about a…

Today’s article comes from the North Sea as our ship leaves Denmark and is headed to Norway.  The various shades of blue make the sky and sea seem to seem to blend as there are no clouds to be found anywhere today. Traveling in the Baltic Sea, particularly visiting St. Petersburg, Russia and Berlin, Germany…

Occasionally life hits me between the eyes with topics to write about. This past Friday, I enjoyed an article in The Wall Street Journal by Paula Marantz Cohen entitled “The Lost Art of the Apology Letter”.  (see below) Letter writing is a dying art in and of itself.  Writing an apology is something almost unknown…

It is such fun to watch your grandchildren grow up.  They remind you in many ways of your own childhood, though in many ways those two childhoods are very different. Each year at Thanksgiving, my brother and sister and I would beg our Grandfather to tell us stories of when he was a kid. Our…

My granddaughter, Laura, attended camp for the second time this Summer.   She attended a WinShape Camp at Young Harris College.  These wonderful camps were started by Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-Fil-A. My grandson, Henry, is off at his first camp this week.  Ironically, I attended my first camp the Summer before I started…

I slipped into the bathroom, closed the door and turned on the water. I waited a minute, turned the water off and then walked out to go to school. “Did you brush your teeth?”, she asked.  “Yes ma’am”, I replied before heading to school. That afternoon I unexpectedly found myself under interrogation at my Dad’s…

The world has been captivated by the heroic rescue of the 11 members and coach of the boys’ soccer team trapped in a deep and winding cave in the mountains of Northern Thailand.  The last of the 12 exited the mouth of cave about an hour ago.  It is such wonderful news that I cannot…