The lakes and mountains of western Maine were home in the 1970s. My energetic parents kept my brother, my sister and me busy with outdoor activities through the changing seasons. We did everything together from a rustic camp they built on the shores of Long Pond, five miles south of Rangeley. We fished, swam, canoed, […]

What comes to mind when you hear the word “grit”? Gravelly dirt or maybe determination? When I hear the word “grit,” I think of the smell of printer’s ink from Linotype machines and the clack-clack of teletype spitting out the latest news from Associated Press or UPI. I hear current events at the dinner table. […]

Kim Mathews and I had much in common: Both our fathers were Maine school superintendents, we both majored in English at small Maine liberal arts colleges – he at Bates and I at Colby – and, in the early 1980s, we were both teaching at Gray-New Gloucester High School. But we did not share this: […]

Teaching is planting seeds in young minds. Learning colors, counting and ABCs lifts the sprout up above the ground. Changes come quickly; standing, walking, talking; each day more exciting than the last – the seedling begs eagerly for its next lesson and growth spurt. We hustle to enrich the soil, be it grit or soft […]

Grit. I can’t imagine anyone reflecting on grit without thinking about what is happening in Ukraine right now. Their incredible strength and resilience in the face of a brutal dictator are beyond belief. We all are holding our collective breath and hoping this needless war will end soon. On a more personal level, my next […]

On June 4, 1985, grit or persistence came to my rescue. My small motorized 14-foot boat was anchored at Falmouth Town Landing. My plan was to take a ride into Portland Harbor and putter around. The local harbormaster was a retired Coast Guardsman; for some reason, when I arrived, he described how bodies looked when […]

“Come on, you can do this.” How often have do we say those words to our children? Where does bravery come from? Where do we get “grit”? For boys, we think sports make them stronger, with more grit. For girls, I’m not sure at this point. Is bravery physical? Is grit the power to punch […]

This is a story where I put myself in a good light and show my true grit in a tough situation. It is Monday, Dec. 12, 1994, 8:59 p.m., and Allison, my girlfriend-future wife, and I are in my apartment in New York City preparing to watch Dan Marino and my Miami Dolphins play against […]