My friend Lee died suddenly six days ago of a condition she didn’t know she had. I haven’t slept well since, and I’m surprised to be so affected by it. I should probably be calling Lee an acquaintance rather than a friend. I’d only known her a few years and we never had the opportunity […]
Ron Kokish
Posted inColumns
Mature Content: Vision 2050
In the 1990s, I wanted my business to contribute more effectively to my community, so I invested a year in the Teams, Management and Leadership Program (TMLP). There, I learned that to succeed I needed clear goals, a plan to reach them and a “next step.” Although plans rarely go as planned, they provide focus, […]
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Mature Content: Storied lives
When my congregation talked about the power of stories last Sunday, I remembered this one. By the time I was 3, it was difficult for my mother to make me behave, so she used drastic measures. She told me she would have to send me to Reform School if I misbehaved.Confronted by my willfulness, she […]
Posted inOpinion
Mature Content: Bustered
Not yet knowing how the 2024 election would unfold, I ended last month’s column by recommending kindness, humor, and dogs. Still good, I think, now that we know the results. Many of my friends were shocked by those results but having been Bustered, I wasn’t. I was six when I got Buster, a smallish, stout, […]
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Looking ahead to Thanksgiving
Over a third of Americans, myself included, plan to travel during this year’s Thanksgiving holiday, and small wonder. It’s difficult to find any civilization without a ritual gratitude gathering when the harvest is in. They called it “Thesmophoria” in ancient Greece and “Cerealia” in Rome. Assyrians, Persians and pre-Columbian Americans all had their versions. “Thank […]
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Mature Content: Dear Mandy,
Mandy and I chatted after a concert last week. She told me that she usually likes this column, but she wasn’t so sure about the last one. Kind of a downer, she thought. The column was about death becoming an ever more present companion when we are old. It was about losing loved ones and […]
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Mature Content: Living the end stage
A medical team stopped and restarted my heart a few weeks ago, trying to stop its atrium from fibrillating. I considered this a drastic measure, but it didn’t work. It rarely does, with people my age. Consequently, I’ve scheduled even more drastic measures.My cardiac reboot took place two days after a close friend’s memorial service. […]
Posted inOpinion
Mature Content: The rest of the story
Remember my marijuana farm from last month’s column? I used that story to make a point about conditions along Highway 133 but probably left you wondering, “How did Kokish resolve the job thing? After burning the plants, wasn’t he still stuck in a soul-crushing bureaucracy?” I want to tell you how that turned out, but […]
Posted inOpinion
Mature Content: Kenny Rogers serenades Carbondale
In May of 1985, my job was troubleshooting the most difficult cases for my county’s child protection program, which I’d helped found a few years earlier. A respected expert in my field, I lunched with attorneys, probation officers, and judges. Both of my teenage children were about to enter college and I owned a marijuana […]
Posted inOpinion
Keeping it local — do we?
There’s a plethora of local Facebook posts denigrating Donald Trump. Posts critical of the Supreme Court are also popular, as are posts about a certain congresswoman’s intelligence and passions. There are complaints about our local government too. Carbondale Marketplace and other developments are favorite targets. Unfortunately, relevant decisions about those developments were made 10 or […]