30Jan 2020 by CJ
A battery charge issue reveals the problem with preserving things

A battery charge issue reveals the problem with preserving things

Life & Living
I recently had my car serviced by my local dealership and was surprised to learn that my battery charge was at a meager 20%. I was somewhat perplexed by this revelation as the battery itself was not old enough to warrant any concern.   Stay with me, I promise there’s a valuable lesson I learned from this. I spent the majority of my teenage years pumping gas and fixing cars at my father’s service station (yes, the state of New Jersey still pays people to pump gas). Shame on me for not figuring out what the problem was sooner. I won’t get into the boring and somewhat scientific details of how your car battery operates. But suffice it to say that if a car sits idle long enough, especially one…
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18Jan 2020 by CJ
Keeping up with the Joneses is alive and well 106 years later

Keeping up with the Joneses is alive and well 106 years later

Life & Living
Many of us have undoubtedly heard the phrase, Keeping up with the Joneses but probably have no idea where it originated from. As it turns out, Keeping up with the Joneses was actually the name of a cartoon strip, which was launched back in 1913 and ran for some 26 years in The New York World and other newspapers across the country. It focuses on the McGinis family, who perpetually struggled (many times unsuccessfully) to “keep up” with their neighbors, the Joneses. The premise of the cartoon was to repeatedly mock a growing need in society to impress other people with the possessions you purchased or the activities you participated in. While Keeping up with the Joneses was first published some 106 years ago, the message is just as timely…
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29Dec 2019 by CJ
The greatest gift you have are the people you share your life with

The greatest gift you have are the people you share your life with

Generosity & Kindness, Life & Living, Love & Relationships
This Christmas, my wife purchased me a book entitled The Greatest Gift, written by Philip Van Doren Stern. While I was unfamiliar with the book at first, I would soon come to understand and appreciate the sentimentality of her gift. Stern spent much of his literary career as an editor and Civil War historian. But around 1938, the story of The Greatest Gift came to him in a dream – outlined from start to finish with incredible clarity. The only trouble was Stern had never composed a work of fiction before. He worked tirelessly capturing the plot from his subconscious, and by 1943 he finally completed the project, which amounted to the length of a short story. From GoodReads, it’s a, “tale about a man named George Pratt who ponders…
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27Dec 2019 by CJ
New Year’s resolutions can truly be impactful for not just ourselves

New Year’s resolutions can truly be impactful for not just ourselves

Life & Living, Love & Relationships
As the holiday season comes to a close, the start of a new year is on the horizon, which means New Year's resolutions aren't far behind. For many of us, December 31 is synonymous with gatherings in Time Square – where a star-studded ball makes its decent before thousands of onlookers cheering “Happy New Year!” at the stroke of midnight. This time-honored celebration has become one of the world’s oldest holidays on record - credited to the Babylonians who first celebrated the day some 4,000 years ago. Though the timing and traditions have changed some over the years, it’s still widely practiced by millions of people all over the globe on the eve of December 31. But the start of a new year should mean more than just champagne toasts,…
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09Dec 2019 by CJ
Christmas cards are a reminder of those we’ve lost

Christmas cards are a reminder of those we’ve lost

Generosity & Kindness, Life & Living
The long-standing tradition of sending out Christmas cards during the holiday season can be credited to Henry Cole of Victorian England. It was often customary in those days to send out letters to family and friends around Christmas and New Year’s, and the newly created British postal system meant people were sending their holiday tidings in mass. Henry Cole, traveling in very elite social circles, found himself with an over abundance of letters he simply couldn’t respond to with handwritten replies, as was expected. Ace Collins, author of Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas, writes, “In Victorian England, it was considered impolite not to answer mail. He had to figure out a way to respond to all of these people.” His solution became the Christmas card, first sent back in…
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