Witty Witness

"The only way you can change your man, is if he is wearing a diaper." I stumbled upon that quote recently on social media and despite men being the butt of the joke (pun intended), I admittedly found a lot of humor in the statement. Often times in relationships, we think we can somehow force or even coerce people to be different. 100% of the time however, we will fail. To the chagrin of ladies everywhere, none of you hold nearly that much authority or control over the opposite sex. Sure, we can influence the lives of others positively or negatively in many ways, but we certainly can't change that person into something else...into someone else. Not truly and not completely. I remember as I kid, I loved going to the zoo. The animals were great, but like most kids I loved the gift shop and souvenirs as well. I'm not sure about the zoo where you live, but the zoo closest to where I grew up, had machines scattered throughout the park, where for a small fee you could

"Maybe it's too soon to say I love you." I don't remember every word from the Valentines Day card, but I vividly remember reading the words, "Maybe it's too soon to say I love you." To be clear, it was WAY too soon. Amber and I had only been dating a few weeks and equally important to share, we were only 15 years old at the time. Like I said, it was WAY too soon. However, it didn't occur to me at the time to be a premature utterance, and strangely I felt the exact same way. I loved Amber. At least "love" as a 15 year old knows what love is. Throughout our relationship since that February in 1996, we've had some truly amazing moments and experiences. We also had our fair share of gut wrenching difficulties as well. You see, it's easy to say "I love you." Words take little effort. Even toddlers can form the phrase, "I love you." Admittedly, it does in fact mean a lot when someone truly and genuinely tells you,

"What is the first thing you want me to say to you when you hear?" the mother signed the question to her hearing impaired son. The chance that the cochlear implants wouldn't work, wasn't even in the realm of possibility. "My name" her son responded. "It's as though I haven't got a name, because I've never heard it before." Think about how many times you hear your own name throughout the day. If you are a parent, like me, it's about 250 times more than you'd prefer. Yet, this young boy pleaded to be able to hear his own name. The scene is heartbreaking and from the opening moments of the video, you can't help but root for the boy. I've seen many other videos like it. The family gathers around in a hospital room, while the doctor turns on the implants for the first time. The patient begins to hear, cue the tears of joy that slowly roll down his or her cheeks, and the room is filled with elation. Video fades to black.