Serve by Design

Have you ever used MacGyver as a verb? If you have watched the popular television series, MacGyver, (1985-1992, 2016-2021) you would know what I mean. The term, “to MacGyver something,”  comes from the ingenuity of the lead character in the series who had an extraordinary gift for problem solving. The term. as a verb. has made its way into popular culture for anyone with an uncanny talent for fixing things from resources, often meager, and on hand! Another similar term for this creative ability to improvise is “Jerry-rigged.” There is a difference though between a duct tape solution, excellence, and innovation! Jerry-rigged, but it works! 😁 The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics this week was an incredible display of artistic creativity and dazzling talent. In one of the most beautiful of settings along the famed Seine River the dance artists were kicking up their heals in puddles of water as the rain poured down. There were explosions of color from the decorated natural struc...

It has been nearly three months now since my mother's death on July 17, 2018. At birth, she was given the name, Beverly Joan (pronounced Jo Ann) and was born to H. Lloyd and Marguerite Pocock Stanley in Nokomis, Illinois on September 1, 1933. To my knowledge, mom was never called Beverly and she would be known by her middle name, Joan. Naming children is an "imperfect science" and is always done for personal preferences. (I am named after my dad, Joseph, but my parents shortened my middle name to simply Joe). It is still hard for me to write these words about mom's passing, but I know that this is the new normal and reality for my family and me. In these last years, I have been interviewing and recording some of my parents' memories. I'm writing an anecdotal history of our family's business. Joe's Auto Repair opened in December 1961 when I was just a ten-year old boy. It has been fun and now, therapeutic, to write about some of the rich experiences I...