Category Archives: parents

Boys Will Be Boys

When my soon-to-be best friend Hunter moved into the house three doors down, we both acquired the brother that neither of us had. We found a partner in crime. When the Little Harpeth River flooded in the late March and April, we would sneak the pool floats out of my garage and raft down the […]

Funny things kids say

Neither one of my nieces has developed a “filter.” You know, that social apparatus which keeps most of us from saying rude, uncomfortable, or politically incorrect things in polite company. Emery, the older one, will say things like “Mommy, your breath is stinky,” or “Why is that lady so big?” Merrill, the younger one, has […]

Antonio from Bamboola

At the beginning of fifth grade, my first year at David Lipscomb Middle School, I auditioned for the play, Don’t Rock the Boat, and landed a part playing “Antonio from Bamboola.” Antonio is a pirate who commandeers a cruise ship. I wore all black, a fake mustache, and a red sash for a belt. The […]

The Miracle of Procreation

When we were growing up, my two sisters and I weren’t allowed to watch several television shows. Married with Children had bad language and crass humor. The Simpsons was a little too irreverent for my parents’ taste. Friends had all the wrong goodies: promiscuity, children out of wedlock, divorce, profanity, a casual attitude toward pornography, […]

Enter the Warthog

My mom tells a story about picking me up from Sunday School. My teacher met her at the door and said, “I need to show you something.” Those words would make any parent nervous. Had her son thrown feces against the wall? Had he tied up one of the other kids in the class? When […]

Dollywood – A Day in Pictures

This past Sunday, I went to Dollywood with my wife Megan, my parents, and my older sister and her family. Megan’s dad runs a non-profit production company, and he has performed a one-man show called “The Whittlin’ Man” for the past seven summers. Ash’s show is the best thing going at Dollywood, unless of course […]

Allison Sprouse and Rachel Wood Turner: Masterminds of modern ink

Sometimes gu.ebers come in pairs. This month, I’d like to showcase the genius of Allison Sprouse and Rachel Wood Turner. On June 1, they released the premiere issue of modern ink, the prettiest new online magazine at school, and quite frankly, they knocked my socks off. Everything about the magazine looks as though the duo […]

Stop, thief!

Three Saturdays ago, Megan was on her way out of the house to do hair at a wedding. In the bottom left-hand corner of our front yard a patch of flowers had come into full bloom. One tall, canary yellow iris caught Megan’s attention. “Baby, come look at this flower!” It came up to my […]

Taking Initiative: Learning “I’ll do it” and “I’m sorry”

This is a long post—one of my longest ever. I’m warning you up front because I want you to commit to reading the whole thing. Why? Because I share two of the most important lessons that I have ever learned, not just about taking initiative but about leading a deeply meaningful life. I thought about […]

April Fool’s, Men’s Feelings, and Warped Humor

Every year on April Fool’s Day, my dad tells a lie. Of course on that particular day of the year, we don’t call them lies. We call them “jokes” or “pranks.” This technicality in nomenclature is supposed to annul the victim’s anger, deflate it like a red balloon. “Can’t you take a joke?” the perpetrator […]