Stephen Metcalfe

Fact.  In my late sixties, I’ve recently concluded that I’ve never worked a day in my entire life.   I’ve certainly had employment.  In my so-called “youth”, I bartended, bused tables and taught tennis and squash but though it paid the rent, did it count as work?  No, not really.  Busing and bartending seemed like a…

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One thing about getting older is, if you’re being honest with yourself, you have to admit you don’t have an overwhelming desire to be young again.  This is not to say you wouldn’t mind the energy and idealism of youth, it’s just to say there’s a growing feeling of “thank goodness I don’t have to…

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I wrote this about fifteen years ago but the idea that we be there for one another, that we provide hope, seems even more timely now. * As I’ve gotten older I’ve had a harder and harder time with the concept of hope.    Read too much.  Too many newspapers.  Too much internet. Too many news…

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  I’ve heard it said that guilt is anger turned inward.    I’ve read that guilt is caused by condemning yourself for being angry and inhibiting the natural expression of that anger. I am one pissed off guy. I am inordinately self-involved (would I be writing about myself all the time if I wasn’t?).    Yet, my…

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  In my house, my place of escape, refuge, privacy, contemplation and uninterrupted reading is on the toilet.  When the going gets tough, the tough get going and I go to the bathroom. Excuse me, I’ll say!  I have to go sit for a while! How can anyone object? I keep piles of books, periodicals…

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  Guess what? The Walt Disney Company makes something in the neighborhood of  6 billion dollars a year from their theme parks. Six Flags Magic Mountain nets 42 million from roller coasters. Sea World generates about 180 million from fish. What kind of incredible aberration in the human genome makes this remotely possible? Am I…

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