by Phil Houseal | Dec 30, 2020 | All Articles, Education, Philosophy
Dec 30, 2020–You know what creates anxiety in many of us? It’s not the lack of choices. It’s having too many choices. I first noticed this in myself as a child trying to figure out my future. I would watch a basketball game, and decide I wanted to be Larry Bird. Then...
by Phil Houseal | Oct 14, 2020 | All Articles, Education, History, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
Oct 14, 2020–As a marketing gimmick, I once tried to come up with a clever mascot for a university’s fictional athletic program. I couldn’t do it. I brainstormed the most insignificant or annoying animals and plants that would make a tongue-in-cheek T-shirt that...
by Phil Houseal | Oct 7, 2020 | All Articles, Education, Philosophy
Oct 7, 2020–Every four years as we approach the elections, I ask the same question: Is anyone “undecided?” Because 90% of everyone who is paying attention to politics fall one way or the other on these binary choices: either Republican or Democrat, Liberal or...
by Phil Houseal | Sep 23, 2020 | All Articles, Education, Philosophy
Sept 23, 2020–At the risk of flogging this deceased pony called the pandemic, I’ve toted up some outcomes that I shall embrace: 1) The end of handshakes I never liked the tradition of shaking hands. Growing up in business and social circles, a handshake was like...
by Phil Houseal | Aug 12, 2020 | All Articles, Education, Philosophy
Aug 12, 2020–In my role as grand-pere I’ve had to dust off my repertoire of fairy tales. There is nothing as effective as a repetitious story for sending an 18-month-old off to naptime, and my standbys are Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Billy Goats Gruff, and The...
by Phil Houseal | Jul 29, 2020 | All Articles, Education, Philosophy
July 29, 2020– Sir Christopher Wren Said, “I am going to dine with some men. If anyone calls Say I am designing St. Paul’s.” That is an example of a poetic form called the clerihew. I am stunned that as a writer it was today I learned about this absurd...