Ponderings by Dan Ponder

This is probably one of the most difficult columns I have ever had to write.  What do you say on the day after the election following one of the most contentious Presidential races in our nation’s history?  The polls have long been closed and once again we find ourselves with a very tight race.  The…

What topic does a writer choose a week before the most contentious presidential race in our lifetime?  That is especially true when you are writing for a weekly newspaper that is struggling to overcome the twin obstacles of Hurricane Michael and the Pandemic.    Advertising has plummeted due to both of those events.  This really…

For those who have asked me about last week’s column, I am happy to report that as of today we have phone and internet service, and our computers are once again working.  How lost we are without technology in today’s world.  On the other hand, what a wonderful respite it was from the craziness of…

As we reach a fever pitch with less than three weeks until the election, everyone is frustrated.  Even political junkies like me have had enough. The simple act of having breakfast with old friends even carries risk these days.  You can lose a friendship over a discussion of who won a debate, when, in fact,…

Occasionally, often just in the nick of time, something happens in our lives that brings us back to an equilibrium, a place where things seem normal, even in the face of most unusual things.    The past few weeks have brought a tsunami of things that should bring concern to all of us.  Given this…

The year 2020 has been a challenge for me, you and probably most people you know.  Things we never imagined could happen have become truths in our every day lives.   The Coronavirus, the multiple storms, the millions of people out of work, any one of them could be a disaster for a single year.…

“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the Fall”.  These were the words of the famous writer, novelist, and playwright of the early 20th century, F. Scott Fitzgerald.  He is most widely known as the author of The Great Gatsby.  Fitzgerald, whose full name was Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, wrote about the…

My grandparents would occasionally visit my West Coast cousins.  My grandfather would come back saying that it rained every day of their two-week visits.  Then he would say the cumulative total of the two weeks’ worth of rain was just a quarter of an inch.  That was his description of the wet, cool weather of…

We live in extraordinarily unusual times.  Changes are coming faster than we can process in our minds.  Things that would never have been a consideration of ours just months ago now command full page articles in national media.   For instance, the Wall Street Journal’s Sunday edition this past week had a full-page article rating…

I stayed up several nights watching the conventions of the two political parties.  I was mesmerized by what was happening.  The different opinions.  The different visions of the future.  The year was 1964.  I was ten years old. Over the years, I have repeatedly admitted to being a political junkie, though this year may finally…