The Jamie Reports

-Written June 19, 2016- for Father's Day The Butterfly Effect is this idea that small occurrences in the present can yield massive effect in the future; much like a seed planted fifty years ago might be a large shade tree now. Not long ago a gentleman spoke at my dad's memorial. He shared the story of my father saving him from a near-drowning when he was eight years old. (My father never shared this story or many of the others I heard that week.) At that time, my dad was a life guard at the Lib erty Pool during a rather iconic period in the history of my hometown. The gentleman shared that he knew of others my dad had to pull out of the pool during his tenure there. As I listened to this gentleman describe his childhood event, I began to imagine the lives that were affected by that one moment in time. Entire generations of family, from his kids to his grand-kids, would never have come into existence had he not lived past that day. This white-haired man now in his 60s wa...

I have spent the past couple of months donating/selling belongings that do not add value to my life. During this time, I have also been working on digitizing as much of my papers and photographs as possible. It is unfathomable how, after spending months tackling this, I still find boxes of knick-knacks to go through (Today, I found a large suitcase in the corner of a closet filled with winter clothing I had forgotten about; an entire tuxedo as well). According to an LA Times article (March 21, 2014), the average household contains over 300,000 items! 300,000 “things;” the majority of which, when we are honest, do not add value to our lives. And, still being honest, their very presence absorbs at least some of our mental and physical energy. Whether that energy is spent cleaning and organizing the “stuff” or financing the storage of it in a home that is twice the size it needs to be or in off-site storage units (in the U.S.-alone: a staggering 38 billion dollar-a-year industry!!). Just...