Forrest Gump said his mother told him that "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get."

That pretty much sums up my latest trip to Chetola for a seminar for lawyers and paralegals this past weekend. Hearing stories of surviving three bouts of cancer and no one thinking one lawyer would even be here to dealing with hosting and paying for a wedding to take place next Saturday, to confronting three large bears to worrying about one's career, this time we had it all.

And to top it off, Chetola did not have a record of my reservation on one of their busiest times of the year. But everyone remained calm and through the day and a room move or two, it worked out with Chetola acting at their best.

But at first, it was not guaranteed.

This weekend and this podcast is about life, and how these people deal with it. It isn't always perfect, but it is full of grit and reslience.

Built in 1915 to support a railroad line from Abington, Virgina, to the North Carolina mountains, the hotel thrived for over a half century as the hub of West Jefferson, located in Ashe County in the northwest part of the state.

In 1977, due to the closing of the railroad and bus lines, the hotel was forced to close its doors for about 50 years.

Bought in 2019, Mark Beck and his family began a 5-year journey to restore the hotel to its former prominence and grandeur.

Opening its doors to the future in July of this year, this is the story of one family's persistence and the resilience of an old hotel. Mark and his daughter Lily have given a new meaning to the words "grit" and "resilience".

Complete with pictures, this is their story of the restoration of a landmark.

In the late spring of 1956, Wake Forest College moved from the town of Wake Forest to Winston - Salem and a new campus. Most of my friends were children of faculty members as was I, as my dad was the Chaplain of the school.

Many of my friends stayed behind, and I lost contact with them. But in a twist, this past week I had lunch with one of them again, a person whom I had known since the first grade, and he told me about others just like him that I had known all those years ago and what had become of them and the lives they had lived.

It made me think about friendships all the more, and so this podcast is about friendships, new and old, the grit and resilience of having them, and how they enrich our lives.

From the random meeting of someone who works in a grocery store to someone you meet in a courtroom or school, life is about making and collecting new friends.

I hope you will enjoy it and this week, make at least one new friend.

This past week was a tough one for this country. Political assassination, shouts of revenge, we seem to have lost, or at least misplaced, our way.

It is a time to remember the words of Nelson Mandella that "hope is the greatest weapon in the world when all else seems lost".

Not that long ago, really, on April 4, 1968, Robert Kennedy spoke in Indianapolis to a group of black people in a poor area of the city and told them that Martin Luther King had been shot, and that he had died.

Sen. Kennedy's talk that night, written by him in a car on the way there, helped to calm the city and give them peace. There were no riots there, though there were that same night in over 100 cities.

We have a blueprint for getting better if only we have the will to follow it.

When former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice and legendary lawyer Phil Carlton asked me to speak to the residents of The Cardinal, a well-known senior citizen's establishment in Raleigh, I immediately said yes.

So, on Wednesday, August 27, due primarily to the interest in the Jeffrey MacDonald murder case, I spoke to an overflow group of about 150 people about the case and then added parts of my own subsequent story for good measure.

This podcast is the video of that presentation. It is a trip back in time.

After holding podcasts for over two years, I am hoping to make some changes and updates to my conversations with people and bring you the best podcast I can. So, for two weeks I am taking a summer pause.

I look forward to a new podcast on Monday, September 8, and hope to see you then.

Until then, have a great rest of the summer.

Jim

In a few weeks, freshmen, the Class of '29 will run together across a football field to the end zone and into their seats inside the stadium and cheer for their team at the first football game of the year and their time in school.

It is a time of new beginnings for them, of endless possibilities. They have a clean slate to write on whatever they choose.

Regardless of age, we are all potential freshmen, if we will only see it. We can start over again if need be. This is a podcast on choosing the future.

Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the energy and willingness to continue that is important.

An article in the Washington Post tells us are becoming a nation of homebodies. So, when I went to Winston-Salem last week to hold a seminar, it was my intention this would be my last time there in person. I would do this program remotely online in the future.

The program was lively with lots of participation by everyone. As people fully participated in give and take, I slowly realized I was not ready to say goodbye to anyone.

So, it is with me in other locations as well. While technology can replace a great deal, it is not yet a good substitute for being there, looking and listening to people face to face.

Being a full-time homebody is something I want to resist until I cannot.

While we know that being alone and feeling that way can cause serious depression, we continue to learn that it is in being with people that is perhaps the best way to fight back.

For me, the best may yet be still out there. I don't want to miss it. I can be a homebody when I have to be, not before.

In late March of this year, I lost $2,000 one afternoon to an online scam that I should have seen coming from a mile away. But I didn't and allowed my laptop to become infected by bad actors, acting from a place in India.

After striking out at getting my computer made safe again at a big box store with so called experts, I turned to my good friend Todd Boufford who is Senior Vice President of Technology and Innovation at Dogwood State Bank.

In a matter of a few hours, he had diagnosed the problem, fixed it and given me advice on how to protect myself going forward.

In this comprehensive podcast, he can do the same for you. He talks about Passwords and Emails, Identity Theft and Personal Property, Networking and Websites, and even Artificial Intelligence.

Consider spending some time with Todd. You, your computer and bank account will be glad you did.

Rick Thames was 26 years old and a new reporter for the Fayetteville Observer when he moved to Raleigh in the summer of 1979 to cover the Jeffrey MacDonald murder trial.

Now, after a remarkable career in journalism, including stops as Editor at the Wichita Eagle and the Charlotte Observer, Rick sits down with me to recall those weeks that summer when he had a front row seat for the murder trial of Jeffrey MacDonald.

He remembers it all, saying the moment the jury announced their verdict of guilty was one of the most explosive moments he had ever seen.

Rick tells his thoughts about the trial, the evidence and the very questions he asked MacDonald one day at lunch that summer.