There will be snow on the gravestone, drifting and blowing in a suburban Chicago cemetery, when the mother comes to tell her child that she got the apology and the story told from the man who threw the punch that killed her boy. It took Nanci Koschman almost ten years. But she did it. She […]
Dig deep enough, and every job search is unique. Beyond resume data is a personal story. It’s the story that prompts answers to questions like, “Is there a ‘fit’ here between this individual and this work?” In her own words, Jennifer Seaver Stokes, of Tuned In Coaching, Carmel, Indiana tells her story here. Everybody’s story […]
Pete Seeger upstairs at the People’s Church on Lawrence Avenue in Chicago; rail thin, head thrust out, jeans and flannel shirt with rolled up sleeves, picking banjo, leading the crowd in song—his voice is almost gone now. And it doesn’t even matter. He has taught us. He lifts his right hand from the […]
It’s a Beatle party. You’re invited! That quiet snow on New Years Eve—calls to mind my brother in law: The Beatle. This week marks his birthday—he’s in his extremely late 50’s now. But still unquestionably a Beatle. So of course there is a party. Where? Anywhere you are. C’mon in! The doors to the tent are […]
Originally published in January 2009. Before the truly brilliant editing that turned this into the last chapter of Finding Work When There Are No Jobs. Here is one person’s unedited story of making a connection to their own perfect work. “And you are? . . . . .” asked the first of what looked like many receptionists […]
Binge-watching the TV show Scandal on a gray Sunday afternoon in November. Glancing out the window I do a double take. Brought to my feet, wide eyed, an American Bald Eagle swooping and soaring against the rumbling trouble in the sky. “Laura!!!” My shout unanswered, she’d gone to Walmart. Yeah, that was it. Walmart. She’d […]
Barry and Jake got married about two miles or so from right here at the old Dickinson Tobacco Warehouse that sits at the very center of Edgerton,Wisconsin. Weathered by Wisconsin snows and blistering heat, still proud with the earthy rich smells of time. Surrounded by the tender rhythms of the Sunday afternoon small town […]
If the joint had not been empty, somebody would have wondered what Mayor Rahm Emanuel was doing, wearing sunglasses, sitting up ramrod straight at a back table in a place that everyone still called Jury’s on a clear blue-sky day in October. It had only taken one call to get him there. All I had […]
We had just gotten the kids settled, sitting cross-legged with us on the carpeted floor in a semi-circle, when the two secret service guys, laser eyed tree trunks in suits, led Rosalyn Carter through the locked doors of the Ward to the single chair at the front of the room. The building where this happened, […]
Homeless memories.