Shared Stories

Did you hear about the time…? Did I ever tell you about…? Do you remember…? Were you there when…? For more than thirty-five years at Union University, conversations often began with some version of these phrases. From August 1989—when I arrived as a scared little freshman—until my job ended in 2024, I was frequently regaled …

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Me-First Attitude

If you pose a question like, “What are your thoughts on the current college transfer rules?” you’re almost guaranteed to spark a lively debate about the state of intercollegiate athletics—especially on a campus where nearly 80 percent of students are athletes. Teach in a sport-related discipline, and the intensity rises: not only are most students …

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Weaving Threads

Does anyone else have an unfinished project tucked away at home? Perhaps it was a venture into woodworking, sewing, scrapbooking, or painting—now sitting quietly, reminding you of the Habit of Resilience you didn’t quite embrace to finish what you started. As I placed Christmas decorations around the house this week, I stumbled upon a framed …

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Professor Gig

It’s been more than three years since documenting the phrase Gig Economy into a journal. And for many years before penning that phrase to the page, I had an inaccurate definition of what the expression meant. Mistakenly, any time I heard a reference to a Gig Economy, my mind conjured up thoughts of computers, data, …

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Not an Expert

Yazoo, Mississippi—If reading those words fails to bring to your mind a rich southern drawl sharing the stories of Marcel Ledbetter and coon hunting, then you did not have the same rich childhood that I did growing up in the 1970s. But guess what? You do not have to miss out, because you can Just …

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Just Ask Google

Just Ask Google. Have you come across these advertisements yet? If not, guess what? You can google it! (Aren’t I funny? Insert sarcasm). Perhaps my initial reaction stems from the current pressure I am feeling to convince these precious young college students in front of me every day that they do indeed have something to …

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Appreciative Examen

Are you a math person or a language person? Perhaps, like me, you might rate yourself somewhere in between, similar to what is described in a previous post about being a Lark, Owl or Third Bird. Providing information in a numerical format seems easier for me to remember, but words also matter. Ask me to …

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Singles Conference

Evidently, this particular post needed more than three years of contemplation before coming together. That fact gives me hope that Silent Grief will one day be written too! Because the reality is that both of these topics related to Singleness need to be voiced and yet the words needed to articulate these intimate issues fail …

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Gen Beta

“What will the future bring for beta babies?” Wait, what?!? Who’s already naming babies born today as Gen Beta? A desire to mindlessly watch football during the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day quickly pivoted into a rabbit trail of endless questions running through my head. Clever marketing strategy, Prudential, and now this college professor, …

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