Gary V. Powell, Author

Well, it's about time for my annual blog entry on this topic. Overall, I'm very pleased with the play of this group of Hoosiers and their coach Tom Crean. With the exception of the Iowa game and the first half of the Northwestern game earlier this afternoon, in which it looked as if the team had forgotten how to play, this season's Hoosier's have come to each game with energy and focus. Led by Verdell Jones, they have at times played not just well but brilliantly. They gave ranked Ohio State a run. challenged Illinois on the road, and nearly beat 8th ranked Purdue at home. If they hadn't lost Maurice Creek, their hot-shot freshman (31 points against top 5-ranked Kentucky), they'd be battling to be in the top half of the conference standings this year. They'd be knocking on the door of an NCAA bid.

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So, Mary bought me a Kindle for Christmas. I was hot for it. I spend a lot of may day writing articles and stories and novel chapters and training programs on the damn computer. You'd think I'd have my fill of electronics. But, no, I wanted that Kindle.

Good wife that she is, she bought it for me.

Here's the deal...I love it. It's probably not for everyone, but it's for me.

I read a lot both for business and pleasure. So far  since Christmas, I've read three books on the Kindle--ordered them at the Amazon Kindle store, bought them for about half the price of the print versions, and had them sent to me in a flash. There they are on my little device, not much bigger than a tablet, easy to use, easy on the eyes. The other day, I was on the computer researching an article for a client. I wanted a book from Amazon right that minute. I normally would have had it in two days. I got in in an instant, no shipping costs, half price. That quick. And, if I want, I can synch my Kindle and my computer to make the book easier to reference as I work.

Mary bought the nifty leather cover that goes with it and I bought a neat little night light that makes reading in the dark possible. I even look cool at the coffee shop.

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I just finished reading "Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life" by Carol Sklenicka (on the Kindle I received from Mary for Christmas). I'm still trying to absorb it all, still trying to work it all out. Ray Carver, in so many ways, has been such a big part of my life that reading this biography of him has left me strung out, depleted, hung over with emotion.

I discovered Ray in the early 1980s when I was working as a young lawyer at Northwestern Mutual and raising a young family. I'd decided, at age 30, that if I was ever going to get serious about writing, it was time to do so. I signed up for a creative writing workshop--it was a terrific workshop with a lot of quirky, talented, hard drinking writers--at Marquette. I attended a couple of nights a week for two or three years. I made some great friends, shared some good stories, and had some great times. I started to believe that maybe I had the natural talent and could acquire the skills to be a writer. Some people I respected took me seriously and encouraged me to take myself seriously.

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Evidence of the power and influence of the insurance-pharmaceutical-medical device interests in this country is the fact that the passage of a health reform bill hinges on the Massasschusetts Senate race and the Democrats retaining a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the senate. Even worse, polls show that a majority of Americans don't believe that healthcare needs reforming.

Americans have been duped. Lost in the noise were these simple facts, which alone should have convinced anyone that reform was needed.

• Despite the fact that real wages have not increased since the 1970s and inflation has been low, healthcare costs and insurance premiums have risen at double digit rates. Our personal insurance, which we pay for out of our business, has increased from about $700/month in 2005 to about $1,300 per month in 2010.
• Over 44 million Americans are uninsured, but more than twice that many are underinsured--their deductibles and co-insurance (the 20 percent or more they would pay for treatment of major illness or serious injury) is enough to bankrupt them in three to six months. Underinsurance also takes the form of lack of coverage for pre-exisitng conditions. Tens of millions of Americans who lose their jobs also lose coverage from the illnesses or injuries for which they are most likely to need coverage.

The only people making money in an overly-expensive healthcare industry that provides crappy care are insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and providers of medical devices and they carried the day in the rhetoric war.

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 A local publisher recently announced themes for this years' anthology.

The themes for the 2010 anthology are (1) imaginary worlds and (2) evil and villains.

I've only written one "fantasy" or "sci-fi" story ever, and it was published online last year. It was a pretty good story, and maybe I'll post it here sometime. But speculative fiction is not my forte.

As for evil, as for villains, that's a tough one. I initially attempted a story based on a woman I used to work for. At the time, she struck me as about the coldest, greediest person I'd ever met head on. After I quit working for her, she was disbarred and lost her job. I have to admit, I thought she had it coming. But looking back on it, Carolyn seems less evil to me and more pathetic than anything.

Of course, the obvious story would be about a terrorist or serial killer. But because it's so obvious, there will be hundreds of submissions to Scott's anthology that involve terrorists and serial killers going about their business.

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I can't help but think back to New Year's Eve 1999. It was a heady time. The dot com boom was in full blast--the Dow was at 11,500 (ask your stock broker about that the next time he tells you the average return is 10 percent annually over the long haul--he'll have some BS answer, but at least it will make him squirm for a moment). People weren't sure if Y2K was just a computer geek's wet dream, or if computer gliches would indeed shut us down and send us into a post-2000 dystopian steampunk future. Little did we know that the zero decade would be dystopic for sure, but due more to George Bush and Dick Cheney than computer gliches. And speaking of politics, we were just completing a year in which Bill Clinton narrowly avoided impeachment for having an affair with a chubby, not all that bright or attractive, intern.

Personally, I was just coming off a great year with my new business and looking forward to a great year in 2000. Mary and I were working hard at having a baby and were looking for a new house.

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Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion and Lake Woebegone fame had a piece the other day about Christmases remembered. He said that of all his Christmases (and by this time we're approaching 60 of them), he remembers only a few. Most of them blend together into a mash of turkey and ham and football games. In his piece on this topic, Garrison recalled two or three Christmases that really stood out.

It was a thought-provoking piece and as a subject matter one I couldn't resist revisiting.

I, too, after all this time have only a few Christmases that stand out.

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With the holidays approaching, I thought it appropriate for post my story "A Christmas Wish." This story has appeared in several venues and versions around the web. This is my favorite. I suppose it's a classic cautionary tale about "being careful what you wish for." But I think it's also about accepting what you've got and learning to be happy with it.

There's probably a little of Leonard and Margie in all of us.

Enjoy.

About twenty years ago I was leading a project for Northwestern Mutual to select the software the company would use to support its foray into financial planning. It was an interesting time. I was among a minority within the company who believed that broad-based financial planning that took into account not only protection of families and businesses, but also accumulation for retirement and other life goals was the way of the future. The majority of the field and home office executives were on the other side of the table, believing that the company should play to its strength, life insurance. After all, we were the best life insurance company in the country by nearly every measure. Why should we venture into things like mutual funds, annuities, and managed offerings?

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Although Thanksgiving has come to be a much different holiday for me, enjoyed with different people in different places, layered with multiple meanings, my feelings about this holiday will always be tied in a large way to an event called the Midwest Open.

I don't even know if it takes place today or not, but from the time I was in eighth grade until I finished law school and took a job in Milwaukee, the Midwest Open was a central event of my year. It was the first major gymnastics meet of the season, taking place in Chicago on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

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