Before starting this course, I thought that I was a pretty culturally competent or at least accepting individual. I come from a very small town where there is not much cultural diversity of any kind, but since coming to UWM, I felt that I had thrived on the diversity on campus and in the city and that I had become culturally competent. I could not have been more wrong. Certainly, living in the city of Milwaukee and experiencing diversity that I had not before exposed me to different cultures and many different types of people, but I still carried many stereotypes and prejudic ...continued...

I had an interesting event while out looking for the horses. First I went up by the pond to see if they'd gone that way. A spring on the topside makes a large mud puddle that's in the path. I thought I saw a large rock, but then it moved. Ha. A large snapping turtle more like it. So I pulled up next to it to get a better look. Then it crawled underneath the 4-wheeler. I didn't want to run over it, so thought I'd just wait until it crawled back out the other side. Well of course it can't be that simple. Turbo saw it and decided to bark at it. And then it decided right there ...continued...

My dog, Shadow, knows it is me coming home when I am still a few blocks away. He’s got that pet ESP. Or maybe he recognizes the sound of my car. Regardless, when I walk in the door he’s in the backyard wagging his tail, whining in anticipation of an ear scratching and a pat on the head. When I open the sliding glass door he begins to do a little dance. This black Chow-Labrador mix 40-plus pound dog is just giddy at the sight of me. I am not sure why that is. I realize dogs are loyal. But even if I ignore him for a bit, usually because I&rsqu ...continued...

This question was often asked of me while I attempted to get my first “serious” job. It was a difficult, philosophical question to answer. Looking back on those times, I wonder if the enquirer had asked it because he could not remember why he himself had chosen to become an accountant. Nearing retirement, the job interviewer hoped that this young, fresh-faced interviewee might retrospectively give meaning and justification to the previous thirty years of his working life. Unfortunately, there was no blinding flash of wisdom from the mouth of this babe accountant. Shortly after I ...continued...

North Pole ...continued...

I always think about my past, and what my past brought me that woud trap me up inside, surround and remind me of fear, disappointments, and hopelessness. Once it would help me with struggles so many things I done. Like the song said to me, “There’s always tomorrow..,” but the past was monopolizing my present today. So what do I do with all that baggage inside of me? How did I sort it all out? I know that my troubles and lack of resolution with my past affects important relationships. The peopl ...continued...

Riding Life’s Rollercoaster by Carolyn Unruh as told to Sally Jadlow My husband, Dave, and I graduated from K-State in Manhattan, Kansas in June 1967. We married that same month. Dave had been a member of the ROTC program at KSU and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. Dave finished graduate school in 1968. He got a 1-year deferment from Uncle Sam. We moved to Kansas City so Dave could accept a marketing position with IBM. One year later, Dave received his papers to report for active duty. At the outset of our marriage, we wanted children. I knew from ...continued...

I think what I find quite amazing is that I can remember as far back as being no older than 2 to 3 years old. Some memories were good and some not so much. I was actually a pretty happy child, never really got into much trouble, unlike my older brother and my little sister. I can remember that the one word we did not say, was the word" shut up" to one another, if you did well you can pretty twell imagine what would happen. I had to find out the hard way one morning, let's just say yuck! I told my brother to shut up because he had said something to me that made me mad, unfor ...continued...

WHAT WOULD MARTIN THINK? Martin Luther King Day Northern Iraq 2004 Attending a celebration service recognizing the birth and accomplishments of Dr. King is not altogether unusual on a day set aside as a holiday in memory of the man and his impact on the future fabric of our nation. What makes this year’s attendance unusual is that I’m in Iraq. I’m deployed to the northern-most airfield in Free Iraq. As a member of a medical unit assigned to Freedom Air Base, ...continued...

THE MAGNIFICIENT MENTOR The notice in the church bulletin read, “Anyone interested in writing, meet in room 312 on Tuesday night. Bring some writing to share.” My heart skipped a beat. I had prayed about how I might start to write about the experience our family had been through with our daughter and her spinal cord tumor. And now, here was an answer. I had written poetry f ...continued...

Orcs hate Elves with a passion. (from Lord of the Rings by J. R.R. Tolkien) “Home home on the range, where the deer and the antelope play” According to the Center for Biological Diversity, Wildlife Services, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has killed, through gassing, poisoning and strangulation by snare, 27 million native animals since 1996, including more than 1 million in 2014. The animals have included prairie dogs, gray wolves, mountain lions, black bears, foxes, coyotes and even bald eagles, and possibly a few domestic cats. ...continued...

My entire world changed, days before my eighth birthday. The years of pain and stress had taken its toll on my guardian angel. I awoke one morning to find her out of sorts. Something major was happening to her health. The last I remember of this time was trying to talk to her, but she had gone deaf. I watched her intently as she sat in front of her dressing table getting ready to go to the doctor. Little did I know that this would be the last time my guardian angel would be with me. My mother suffered a stroke, and was left paralysed the ...continued...

[These series of articles were written in 2005 and some appeared in the Kansas City Star] What was the best “con” of the twentieth century? My vote goes to the worldwide diamond trade. Debeers and friends, who consolidated the markets in the late nineteenth century, secured a monopoly of truly remarkable proportions. Who in the world today doesn’t know that a diamond is forever and is also a girl’s best friend? The “grass” trade in the United States may not be in the same league as the diamond monopoly, nor did it deliberately start out in it ...continued...

More Love Stories - http://tinyurl.com/j5mbhlu My neighbor mows my yard every week even though i have asked him to stop many times. He also appeared yesterday with a chain saw and was going to cut down my big maple tree in the front yard. I have a plan but i can't tell you what it is just yet. 7/1/2014 I started this story sometime ago and thought I best add a bit more information because of continued request from readers so here is my next thought. My neighbor, the same one I mentioned earlier, decided if he was to continue mowing my yard, t ...continued...

Prologue Not since the world was made was there ever seen or won so great a treasure, or so noble or so rich, nor in the time of Alexander, nor in the time of Charlemagne, nor before, nor after, nor do I think myself that in the forty richest cities of the world had thebeen so much wealth as was found in Constantinople. For the Greeks say that two-thirds of the wealth of this world is in Constantinople and the other third scattered throughout the world. {Robert of Clari, a French crusader, who was in Constantinople in 1204 when it was pillaged} . The spider weaves the curtains in t ...continued...