Random Thoughts with Will

    About 12 years ago, I visited Death Valley National Park with my father. Death Valley is known for two distinctions: one, it holds the world record for the warmest recorded air temperature at 134 degrees Fahrenheit (though that temperature has been disputed, as well as unverified claims of warmer temperatures). When we went in August 2008, it was "only" 121 degrees Fahrenheit. For as hot & humid as Texas summers get, I can still take solace in the fact that it's cooler than Death Valley. The second distinction Death Valley holds is this: it is home to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America (282 feet below sea level).      Literally speaking, visiting Death Valley was the lowest point in my life. And unless I travel to an even lower point in the world or explore the deep sea, that will be the lowest my life ever gets. While Death Valley may have been the "lowest" point for me, it's certainly not the lowest that I have ever felt, nor was it ...

        As many may know about me, I have a goal of visiting all 50 U.S. States. Thanks to trips my family took growing up (as well as some personal adventures I've taken in recent years), I'm pretty close to hitting that goal. Only 3 states remain: Alaska, Hawai'i, and Rhode Island. Given that the first 2 are bigger, more expensive trips to take, I've always viewed Rhode Island as "next in line", so to speak. Last year, I considered taking a trip up to the Northeast so that I could knock Rhode Island off that elusive list, as well as explore nearby areas such as Boston. However, that trip never came to fruition last year. But why was that? Why did I pass up the chance to explore the Northeast and say that I've visited all of the Lower 48?       Well, it ultimately came down to this: my heart just wasn't in it. While I do hope to make that trip one day, the thought of visiting last year felt more forced than fun. It felt like I wanted to go just t...

    In the classic Arthur episode "Buster's Growing Grudge", Arthur's best friend Buster holds a grudge against fellow classmate Binky Barnes. The reason for Buster's grudge? Binky "stole" his joke about King Tut and shared it with the class, a joke Buster was planning to use for his presentation. For the rest of the episode, Buster goes from being a normally cheerful class clown to bitter and petty, allowing himself to be derailed by Binky using his joke.       While Buster's grudge may seem silly, we've all found ourselves in Buster's situation before and held a grudge against someone or something. Grudges have a way of hurting people, but not the people they're against. Buster's grudge didn't hurt Binky; it hurt himself. Buster was only able to get over his grudge when he talked to Binky about the issue (to which Binky apologized for using his joke).When it comes to holding grudges, we have two options: let it go or let it grow...

     If you were to ask my family about my lexicon, odds are they would mention specific words or phrases that I like to use. Some phrases, such as "anticipate my whim", stem from movies or TV shows (that one is from Muppet Treasure Island ). In other instances, there's words such as "parochial" that I learned in school and will use, even when it doesn't make sense (Inigo Montoya would be disappointed). There's even words such as "chicane", a word that I enjoyed so much I even made a blog post about life's chicanes . At one point, I did a de facto word of the day at work, coining it "Whimsical Words with Will" and featured words that I've encountered and liked, such as gravitas, harbinger, kvetch, or trope.      Whimsical words aside, there's one word that I've found myself saying a lot lately: weariness. Weariness is a word that's been on my heart even before staying at home in quarantine started. After 2019 being...