Sugar Frosted Flakes

When I was a kid, I was put on a sugar-free diet because of a chronic cough. For the most part, I managed OK, but when it came to breakfast cereal I was one sorry little boy. Perhaps the worst part was that all the boring cereals didn't put toys in the box - a double whammy! Oh, pity the poor, poor little Midwestern boy ...

Underwear shopping is not an intergenerational activity.

I'm pretty used to seeing skin thanks to the multi-media world in which we live, but I suspect shopping at Victoria's Secret is still a bit of an overload for most guys.

We're all wimps.

Seriously, when we were working in Mexico, there were 15-year-old boys that were pushing wheelbarrows that I was afraid to attempt.

Mexican masonry

When you get a bunch of non-bricklayers laying bricks (or blocks in our case), the results aren't what I might call "up to code". But the Mexican foreman allowed us to do a less-than-perfect job, and encouraged us all the way.

I just need to carry a 3rd shoe just in case ...

When I started working with youth, I realized the universal truth that if a frisbee or ball get stuck in a tree, a boy will ALWAYS throw his shoe at the object to get it down. And, if the shoe gets stuck, he will throw the other shoe. Only when the second shoe gets stuck will he consider other alternatives.

Physical labor is good for the mind

Whether mixing concrete, shoveling concrete, carrying concrete in buckets, or wearing concrete on my skin and clothes, my mind kept returning to thoughts of how lucky I am that this isn't what I do for a living.

Safety before fashion

I went with our church on a mission trip to Reynosa Mexico last week and despite hurricane Dolly, we still built a concrete block house for a family that was previously living in a plywood shed.