Mike Matthews

My thoughts after 63 years on this planet on family, public education, cooking, and life.


LATEST POST

A Golden Graduation

Well, I said I wouldn’t cry during Dawson’s graduation. Actually, I said I probably wouldn’t. And . . . I totally failed. Oh well. I loved it all. He did it. Cheered on in-person by his mom and dad, his brother and sister-in-law, and his wonderful girlfriend, while his grandparents watched online and cheered from […]

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RECENT

Birthdays: Don’t Love Them, Can’t Live Without Them

March 15, 2025

I turned 63 years old this week. I’m quite good with it. As they say, it’s way better than the alternative! I decided to share some random birthday thoughts in this post, so here we go. When the ground shifts, I’ve found the best thing to do is to be of service. Go where the […]




BOOKSHELF

Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again

Johann Hari 2022
Read: 2023
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction, Reading Now

My friend Jenn loaned me this book. That means I read it as a paperback, instead of Kindle-ing it. I read less than 10% of my books in hard copy. This was a perfect one to choose to be part of that 10%. This is a book about why we are distracted, and the forces […]

The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort To Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self

Michael Easter 2021
Read: 2024
Non-Fiction, Reading Now, Spirtuality

After I wrote my blog post on doing something that sucks everyday, my sister-in-law Libby recommended that I read this book. It was an outstanding recommendation. Michael Easter does a wonderful job of telling the story of a highly challenging hunting trip to Alaska, weaving in research on how we 21st century humans have it […]

Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Smart, Sexy, and Fit – Until You’re 80 and Beyond


Read: 2022
Non-Fiction, Reading Now

Younger Next Year is a book I keep coming back to. I forget who first turned me on to it, but I read it in my mid-fifties, and it continues to inspire me.  The bottom line is that at some point, sometime in our forties or fifties, our bodies want to get old and decay. […]

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Marie Kondo 2011
Read: 2018
Education/Leadership, Non-Fiction, Reading Now

I was listening to an architect who specialized in building new schools talk about what classrooms should be. One of his pet peeves was all of the nonsensical and nonpurposeful clutter that occupies many classrooms. He thought that every classroom should contain only those items which are useful for teaching and learning or inspirational for […]


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- Mike Matthews
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