Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
OCTOBER 16, 2024 – This morning I completed the second of two remote, hours-long sessions with a researcher at the University of Minnesota. Our family had been recruited some 25 years ago to participate in the Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study (“SIBS”) of adoptive and non-adoptive families undertaken by the Minnesota Center for Twin and …
OCTOBER 15, 2024 – “Dear Diary, In many ways today brought a typical mixture of ebb and flow; tension and resolution; yin and yan. What was different about it all was my awareness, my perception of opposing forces coming together to provide a modicum of peace through balance. I started off in conflict—talking litigation strategy …
DECEMBER 3, 2023 – Yesterday evening we enjoyed a brief visit with our younger-son-Byron’s birth-mother, whom he—and the rest of our family—refer to as “K-Mom.” The “K” stands for “Korea,” which is where K-Mom lives and Byron was born. He first parted company with K-Mom immediately after delivery; the two were reunited for the first …
JANUARY 20, 2022 – Blogger’s note: This post is dedicated to my wife, the ceaselessly caring, loving mother of the mensch and the philosopher. As in politics, so in families occurs an aversion to the loss of control. My grandfather Holman controlled family affairs with an iron fist, even after all the iron was out …
OCTOBER 6, 2019 – Today marks the day three decades ago when our younger son, Byron Kang Boger Nilsson, first arrived in the U.S. We’d been through a similar event just over three years before, when his older brother, Cory, had landed in our embrace—likewise, after a “forever” flight from Seoul, Republic of South Korea. …
SEPTEMBER 11, 2019 – Right now I’m in New York City on multiple missions. Remembering 9/11 is not among them, but it is impossible to be in this great town on this date without reflecting on the horrific event that so disrupted the life of the world on 9/11/2001. No one alive and conscious then …
MAY 11, 2019 – In earlier times, I was more intense. Each day I’d crawl into the cage, jump on the wheel, and make it go round and round. I was sure the wheel drove a generator, because a little light bulb inside the cage blinked as soon as the wheel began to turn and …
APRIL 29, 2019 – Yesterday evening I watched on Netflix, a PBS documentary about the horrific Battle of Chosin Reservoir fought in the Korean War. The battle started the day after Thanksgiving, 1950 and extended well into December. I’d heard and read about it, but the extensive interviews with American veterans—the “Chosin Few,” as they …