Better Than the Best

 

February 17, 2026

 

So, the Winter Olympics are in full swing. In every Olympic cycle, summer or winter, some announcer will say excitedly, “Athlete X is the best skier, skater, swimmer, runner, etc. in the world!” When I hear that, I always want to clarify: They’re the best well-known skier, skater, whatever.

 

Because there’s always someone better. Someone who didn’t get discovered, or who couldn’t afford the cost, or who just plain didn’t want to trade doing something they loved for the rigor and the non-stop training to it takes to be an Olympian; who said, “I enjoy it, I love it, I don’t want to end up hating it because it takes over my life.”

 

I’m not denying that the people who participate in the Olympics are great; they put everything they had into becoming the best, and that exemplifies the Olympic spirit.

 

But somewhere, there’s somebody better.

 

 

 

It Depends on the Circumstances

 

July 19, 2025

 

I wrote a little while ago about what people would like to have on their headstones.

 

Well, earlier today I was describing a trip to a friend and I said, “After I finished seeing what I had come to see, I started to go home, but then I saw a path and I took it. It led to a park, and eventually I found myself at a Shakespeare festival.”

 

“Hmm,” I thought. “That might look good on a headstone: ‘I saw a path and I took it.’”

 

 

Then I thought: “Unless that’s the reason I ended up needing the headstone.”

 

The Sum of a Life

June 2, 2025

 

What to put on a grave marker? That’s a current debate in my family. We can’t all be like some of the ancients, with amazing tombs and carved columns describing their life and times. There’s just not enough room in the average graveyard or on the average tombstone.

 

I’ve read about some fun epitaphs on tombstones, and I’ve also seen gravestones that say, “Loving wife and mother,” and you know there’s got to be more to the person.

 

I think it would be swell if you could have a QR code that people could scan to get the full scoop. Then you could say, “Mother, grandmother, and so much more!” above the QR code, and people could scan and find out why.

 

I’ve seen gravestones with ceramic pictures affixed to them. Scanning a QR code onto a tile should be a snap to do. It probably will be outdated in 100 years, so historians won’t have much fun (unless there remained a niche market for the scanning technology); but wouldn’t it be cool to be able to access the past? No hieroglyphic-carved columns necessary.