Columns/Opinion

A banker asked me recently if my industry had to deal with a lot of government regulations. He noted that even small banks have frequent visits by regulators and several examiners report to work each day in offices located within some of the larger banks.

That close watch hasn’t stopped some bankers from thinking they can beat the examiners as our newspapers have had stories over the years about embezzlement at local banks.

Neighbors,

When my daughters were young, and found themselves in a situation that seemed overwhelming I would say, “Take a deep breath and a few steps back from yourself.” It seems like vague or simplistic advice, but using a few moments to calm yourself often helps to put things in a warmer light. I'd like to be able to say the same thing to the nation as well. Mostly though I wish I was as good at living up to my ideals, and standing up to my fears, as I profess one should be.

When I go out for runs, I always track my distance with a GPS watch that downloads my miles to a software app on my phone.  Recently, the app put together my year’s worth of runs and gave me the option to publicly post my mileage tally for the entire year, so I decided to do that with the personal notation, “productive year.”

A friend came back with, “Productive? Didn’t you almost always end up right back where you started?” In other words, he was implying I spent 2018 running in circles.