Dr. Riedy's Random Thoughts

  I enjoy going back over the many insightful, often humorous responses to my essays. For example, in response to my essay on “A Trillion Here, A Trillion There…”a friend wrote, “We have more qualifications for people applying to McDonalds than for our national leaders.” That comment got me thinking, and I wrote what follows several weeks ago but just had not had time to publish it. However, in skimming USA Today this morning, on the front page there appeared a small table with the results of an “Ipsos poll” from May 4 – 5, which reminded me it was time to publish this piece. Here’s why. The survey question was “How many Americans say these professions are trustworthy?” Firefighters                                                    ...

  Recognizing The Emotional Content in Everyday Relationships   Recently, if someone had asked me the throwaway question, “so how’s your day going?”, my likely (superficial) response would have been something like, “just fine, thanks”. Most anyone asking this bland question is being polite and trying to make a social connection, neither expecting nor wanting to hear your story.   However, the truth is that as I reflect on my relatively “typical” days I realize they can be loaded with important and meaningful relationships, each with emotional content deserving recognition and appreciation. Collectively, these “touches” can amount to a surprisingly broad gamut of feelings and experiences, as they did for me when I originally drafted this essay, which was on May 18, when I wrote about the previous day. After a couple of weeks of editing it several times I now offer these thoughts to you. There were highs …May 17 was a day crowded with positive, constructive relationsh...