Everyone who knows me knows that December 22 is my least favorite day of the year… it’s the day with the shortest amount of daylight. The sun sort of bottoms out for three days around December 22 before beginning its climb higher into the sky (by one degree) on or about December 25.

I never really thought about it, but those two things have something in common.

One hundred and thirty years ago this year, on December 22, Edward Hibberd Johnson changed everything and ushered in an era of tacky lights and over the top Christmas displays. Johnson, who was vice president of Edison Electric Light Company, created the first display of electric lights in his home for Christmas. Thomas Edison created the first practical electric lights three years before so as a publicity stunt Johnson added 80 electric lights to his Christmas tree. Not content to simply put lights on a tree and flip the switch, though, Johnson mounted a rather pathetic looking tree on an electric turntable that spun the tree around. As it turned, the lights blinked on and off, alternating colors from white to blue to red.

And now I think I need to go to the store. There’s this one spot on the side of the house that isn’t lit up…Dad would be so proud.

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When I was a kid, Thanksgiving was “Turkey Day”. For me, the whole purpose of the day was eating turkey and mashed potatoes. I knew (or thought I knew) the story of the first pilgrims and the feast they had at the end of the harvest, inviting their “Indian” friends over for a big party. At school every year we made construction paper hats and headdresses to play our parts for the day.

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Forty two years ago today, 75 Marshall University football players, coaches and supporters died in a plane crash on the way home from a game against East Carolina University (Marshall lost 17-14). The crash and the aftermath were the subject of the movie “We are…Marshall”. For more information, visit this link.

I was three-years-old when it happened. I didn’t have a connection to anyone on the plane and didn’t know much about it until my freshman year at Marshall in the fall of 1985. On campus, it was a different story. The story of the crash permeated everything. The Memorial Student Center was the focus of the campus and the Memorial Student Center Fountain was one of the most picturesque sites on campus. One of the first assignments in my first photography class was to take night photographs. Of course, I headed right for the fountain.

Variously, you hear the phrases Always Remember and Never Forget in reference to the crash and those we lost that day. The crash didn’t just traumatize the school, but the entire city of Huntington. That isn’t to say that we dwell on the past or feel somehow victimized by the tragedy. I think the feeling is exactly the opposite. We will never forget the friends and families we lost that day, but at the same time we take our strength and perseverance from that event.

The education I received at Marshall put me on the path to a career that I could only dream of growing up. I’ve been on six of the seven continents (still working on Antarctica) and have friends on each of them. I’ve dived and hiked and explored. I’ve photographed and written about them. Some of the most intense friendships of my life are from my days at Marshall. I am honored to still be in touch with many of them. Of course, I’ve lost friends from those days, too. I was a senior at Marshall when one of my best friends, Mike Burnsworth (a friend since high school), died of cancer. I remember him in each of my novels.

I think my time at Marshall taught me something even more important than how to use a camera or string words together. It taught me how to learn, how to wonder and to never give up. I know if I keep working, I will reach my goals. Maybe not always on my own time table, but it will happen.

The tragedy of the plane crash forged in Marshall a special identity. It made the Marshall community even more determined to succeed and to thrive. We will always remember those who died that day and we learned to never take a day for granted.

May God bless the families of the men and women we lost that day.

I’m proud to be a son of Marshall.

Go Herd!.

I am so sick of this political season, I can barely stand it. The negative, false ads with misleading and inaccurate claims (offered by everyone, no one is above the fray). The endless overanalysis of nothing and talking head “pundits” giving their opinions and spin on everything; just sick and tired of it.

“Many times in America, the better educated the voter, the more likely they are to vote,” Feldman said. “In Russia, it is just the opposite. The intelligentsia votes less in elections because they feel they can accomplish less.”

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“Do not by any means destroy yourself, for if you live you may yet have good fortune, but all the dead are dead alike.”
~ The Horse and His Boy– C.S. Lewis

Afterward, I spent a lot of time thinking about perseverance and what it takes to “make it” as an author and a writer. Granted, part of that “thinking” time was on the patio with a glass of red wine, but it all counts. Oprah isn’t calling me, but I’ve finished four novels and co-authored a nonfiction book (along with a host of other things) so I have a clue or two on what it takes to finish a book. It probably sounds cliché, but the secret to finishing a book is showing up. Taking the time to write and actually writing.

Just as importantly, you have to keep showing up, you have to keep smiling and you have to keep working it. Even when no one is coming to your table and no one seems interested in what you have to say. In the “life lessons” category, this is true about anything, but especially creative projects whether they be writing or painting or dancing or anything else.

As a writer I have been knocked down and pushed away and have received so many rejection letters I’ve lost count.

This weekend, I’m offering a class at the WVSU Economic Development Center/Digiso on Self Publishing. I’ll be mainly talking about how to publish book-length projects, but we’ll talk about blogs and social media as well. Those are tremendous ways to get your voice heard and build a following.

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