Spring Cleaning: Pictures to Prove It

May 06, 2016 by Scott Todnem

One of the most meaningful collections I hope to keep around is not even mine, in actuality. My parents have amassed an outstanding collection of photographs.

A photograph can bring all of this to the forefront of the memory; stories of the past beg to be shared. Impromptu reminiscence can bring everyone into the room. It's the "I remember when..." and "That was the time..." that garner the most attention. Not every story ends happily ever after, either. But all stories have a moral. Eventually, all stories serve a purpose. Sometimes, the purpose is in the actual storytelling experience.

No smart device can draw a red-blooded kid away from a good family story. At least, not the stories worth telling. And retelling. And retelling...

True? Potentially. Embellished? Absolutely.

Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover: The Holocaust Museum

April 03, 2016 by Scott Todnem

What really woke me from my solemn daydream wasn't so much the southern accents, it was a specific comment.

One of the boys was reading the handout identification card he had popped out of his pocket; the museum gives one to all visitors at the onset of the museum tour. It chronicles the life of one person who endured the Holocaust. Some individuals lived through the tragedy, in many cases separated from loved ones in the process, while the majority highlighted in the booklets suffered an untimely death at the hands of Nazi brutality.

This young boy next to me, 16 or 17 at most, blurted out in discovery that the card he was holding was of a persecuted homosexual man.

The Long Road Ahead: A Marathon Session

March 03, 2016 by Scott Todnem

Over five years ago, my lovely girlfriend and soon-to-be wife, Sarah, decided to sign up for the Chicago Marathon. The challenge and the training and the culminating event were going to be representative of life's roller coaster ride. It would be a test of her physical and mental will; a battle over the proverbial obstacles of stress and struggle at that time in her life.

However, after months of training, just two weeks before the marathon, she opted out. While fighting constant knee pain, she couldn't put her body through the mileage that was beating her down with overuse injury. It was a tough choice but the right one, proving intelligence and foresight for future joint health. Smart.

That's where I stepped in.

Why let the registration go unused? Or, at most, why sell the race number to someone else?

"I could run it," I thought.