On Keepin’ it Real this week, Cam takes us back to 1988 when he and his team lined up to upset the world order in an all out international rowing competition. It was one for the record books. —– It was the spring of 1989 in Augusta, Georgia. I was a member of the Tulane University Rowing team and we were there to train for Spring Break. Crew teams from across the south and many of the elite crew teams from the northeast came to Augusta and this perfect stretch of the Savannah River to train during the week and… Read More
Categories: Libsyn2On this week’s Keepin It Real, Cam Marston has just returned from a few days in Fort Lauderdale. It’s a different world down there, Cam says. One that he might have envied at one point in his life. —— My wife and I returned from Ft Lauderdale Saturday. We were there for a corporate event where I was giving a speech. My client generously offered an extra couple of nights in the host hotel and our room was on the 26thfloor overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. I watched the sun rise each morning as I sipped coffee and read. It began… Read More
Categories: Libsyn2On this week’s Keepin It Real, Cam Marston wants you to know he’s NOT A CYNIC. But there are things this time of year that just kinda get to him… —– ‘Tis the season for pensive and sappy messages. I’m so sorry but it’s true. They’re appearing in TV commercials, in client and vendor emails. Letters received in the mail about the joys of the season and now’s the time to be grateful and all that. I hate being a cynic, but it all appears to be virtue signaling to me. The people I know sending these messages are savage… Read More
Categories: Libsyn2On the way home from Oxford Saturday, Cam and his family stopped at a service station which led to him thinking about what NOT to put on his Christmas list. —– For years I had my children convinced I was allergic to cats. I told them the reason we couldn’t have a cat as a pet was that my head would explode in a fiery ball. They wanted a cat. They asked regularly and finally accepted that I was allergic. I’m not allergic to cats. I’m not sure how they found out, but the cat-pet requests are back. Frankly, I… Read More
Categories: Libsyn2On this week’s Keeping It Real, Cam Marston reacts to a book review about society and how we’re raising kids. It’s not the kids fault, Cam says, it’s definitely the parents. —– The Economist magazine reviewed a book called Infantilised: How Our Culture Killed Adulthood. The author, Keith Hayward, argues that western society is keeping kids less mature than previous generations. He tells of a young lady who insisted on spelling the word hamster with a P. When corrected repeatedly, she called her mom and put her on speakerphone to tell her boss not to be so mean. That’s laughable,… Read More
Categories: Libsyn2On this week’s Keepin It Real, Cam’s family dog heard what he said to the vet. And she has something to say about it. —– When I walked through the back door our dog, Lucy, looked at me as if to say “you and I have some unfinished business.” Lucy had been feeling bad. She was lethargic and had thrown up in four or five places in the house. On the rugs, of course. I got to my hands and knees to try to clean them up. It was nasty. She definitely wasn’t herself and my wife, who Lucy seems… Read More
Categories: Libsyn2On this week’s Keepin It Real, Cam Marston says he has a question for you. And he’s curious if you have a question for him. —– A story that lives in legend in my family is the day my mother interrupted a story about a boastful largemouth bass fisherman and my mother, in full innocence, asked “Who had the large mouth? The fish or the fisherman?” She had never heard of a largemouth bass. But, considering the context of the story, it was a legitimate question. The group fell silent and stared. Someone then explained to her about the species… Read More
Categories: Libsyn2Cam’s back from his one month sabbatical and creating commentaries again. This one he simply calls Gettin’ Lucky. —– Dr Suchan Shenoy is one of the regulars at Restaurant Five in Tuscaloosa on Saturday mornings. I join the regulars when I’m in town visiting my son who is a sophomore at the University. Dr Shenoy is an OBGYN at the DCH Hospital there. He and I sat together and we made some small talk. I don’t know any of the regulars well, but I enjoy their company when I’m in town. Dr Shenoy could relate to my situation. I was… Read More
Categories: Libsyn2This week on Keepin’ It Real, Cam gets a flashback memory to one of the low points of his early adulthood and why he should hold on to that memory to keep himself in check. —– I listen to my commentaries from time to time and I can sound quite self-righteous. A bit “holier than thou.” And I don’t much care for it. Perhaps you’re familiar with the expression “beware the reformed.” It means those that have returned from the brink of some excess tend to be evangelizers of their new ways. They’re the alcoholics, for example, who insufferably rail… Read More
Categories: Libsyn2On this week’s Keepin’ it Real, Cam Marston wonders if we prefer entertainment to anything of substance. And frets over the consequences. —– I hope everyone had a nice July Fourth holiday. On July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was officially adopted and signed. It has proven to be one of the most influential documents in world history, generating demands for independence and self-rule across the world. Eleven years later, in 1787, the US Constitution was created and was then ratified about a year later. The energy and enthusiasm and aspirations of these two documents propelled a new nation… Read More
Categories: Libsyn2