Graham Sedam Writes

This year, this month actually, I'm turning forty. I'll try to spare you the clichés and trappings of a post about turning forty, but chances are I'll fail at that. Why? Because there's something universal to stereotypes and clichés. There's a truth to them that we may not want to admit. There's a reason they exist. Turning forty and our feelings about it are no exception. I could also go on at great lengths talking about a lot of different things related to my life up until turning forty and where I’m at in life now and where I see myself going. Instead, I felt it best to highlight a few different things that I’ve thought about most in regards to this decade milestone. How has age influenced my decisions and my outlook the most? I don't believe that I went through or am going through a midlife crisis. To some extent, I feel like I've already gone through plenty of internal life crises. In the least, we all have micro life crises along the way, so

The title to this post shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Heck, the few people out there who've somehow abstained from social media understand this. Why? Because social media is woven into our culture now. It didn't take long. It's addictive. It's NOW . It's a great promotional tool. It's many things. It's whatever you want it to be. While the internet has given everyone the potential to share to the world, it has also created a vast ocean of stuff that can be hard to navigate, believe, or keep up with. A bit of advice: You can't keep up and you were never intended to. Every social media service and website has every intention to try and keep you logged on and plugged into their site indefinitely. This shouldn't come as a surprise. In the mobile world, if someone clicked on a link, it used to open in their browser of choice. Now, that person technically stays within that social media platform every time they do so—unless you tell

Earlier this year, my wife and I watched an HBO show called The Young Pope . At first, I liked it because of its oddness and frankness, but overtime, the story started to grow on me in a way that I never expected. The first two episodes were interesting, but it wasn't until about halfway through the season that I realized how much I looked forward to watching it and not just because it was the series we were currently watching. I was expecting it to be different than it was. My thinking going into it was that the young pope would be hip and with the times and buck tradition, giving the old guys heartburn just worrying about what he'll change. And while there is a certain amount of "giving old guys heartburn," it's not what you'd think. It shouldn't be a surprise that religious topics are a big focus of the show, but I personally didn't feel there was any grandstanding. To me, the show approached these in more of a cerebral acknowledgement o

Along with the start of a new year, I've started reading a new book. I met my goal of finishing the book  Early Mourning  before the end of 2016. Read more about that in a post I wrote called " Exit Music, Enter Early ." The book I started reading is called Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe . I've had this book for many years but never got around to reading it. I decided to change it up and read a book that deals with history, and this one seemed to grab my attention. Next, I'm planning on reading a book,  The Black River Players ,  from an author I know, J. Thomas Richards , after I purchase it. Justinian's Flea is about the Roman Emperor, Justinian. He was the last in a long line of emperors. The book tries to explain why in every angle possible. Justinian was actually a good and successful emperor, the last to be called Great. Why did the empire end under his rule? The book is also about more than just the rule o

Have you heard about New Year's resolutions enough yet? We all know it's going to come, and with the prevalence of social media, it gets blasted through the internet into everyone's feeds. The news and entertainment sites come up with an array of articles taking a look at this tired tradition. I, too, get sucked into an article here and there. Some people make their resolutions known to their friends and followers. According to articles in the digital abyss, I've heard that this is good or bad depending on what you're reading. One article says it's bad, because while the act of saying it out loud makes the person feel better about themselves, it actually only tricks the brain into thinking it has already accomplished the goal. With each repeat, the person is less likely to follow through. Another article says it's good, because the act of making it public keeps a person accountable. I would wager a guess that follow-through on a resolution probabl

Read Part One here. When we had finished our walk of the course and found ourselves back at the entrance, we agreed to go and check out some of the sponsor tents that we didn't need credentials to get into. There were three: Le Golf National, Samsung, and Mercedes-Benz. These tents, other than the larger-sized merchandise shop, were the biggest tents there. We stopped in first at  Le Golf National, France  because we went to them in order, duh. The 2018 Ryder Cup will be in France, so they were promoting it, hoping that the people at this Ryder Cup would be the kind of people to go to France for the next one. Also, the tent was to promote golf courses and hotels in France for vacation purposes. We got some free pictures that were a little bit bigger than postcards, a golf tee, and a scratch-free-wiping-cloth-thing. There were three French women working in the tent, and I think one French man. One of the women came over and talked to us while we looked at the pictures and

On September 28th, I had the opportunity to spend the day at Hazeltine National Golf Club . It was the home of the 2016 Ryder Cup . I'm not going to go into exactly what that is, because I still don't fully know how that works. What I do know is that there are two teams in the tournament: Team USA and Team Europe, and they are playing for possession of the Ryder Cup. It happens every two years. Individuals golf in groups, but it's a team tournament. Scores, pairings, blah blah blah. Now that it's over, and a month later, I know Team USA won.  I received a ticket and a commemorative hat for free from where I work. I was one of the people chosen based on my contributions to safety. The company I work for also had a hospitality tent at the Ryder Cup, so I was able to take advantage of the free food available and have a nice area to view the second half of the tenth hole. I had heard the tickets were about one hundred dollars, so it was a nice gift to receive. I surel