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Reflecting on 2025; priorities for the year ahead

As 2025 draws to a close and Minnesotans enjoy a holiday season filled with family, friends, and, yes, snow, I wanted to take stock of what we’ve accomplished this year, reflect on some of the challenges we’ve faced, and look forward to the work ahead. This year started with the transition of power from one president to another. I chaired the bipartisan inauguration committee and spoke about the need to recommit to my North Star: finding common ground where I can and standing my ground where I must. Last Congress, during a highly partisan time, I was again ranked as one of the ...

Politics isn’t measured in words, it’s measured in results

Politics is a lot of talk. Sometimes, that conversation results in action. Other times, it fizzles out and gives way to the next headline, the issue forgotten and the solution left uncharted. In my decade as a Minnesota senator, I have seen dozens, maybe hundreds, of conversations bubble up and then pop before any meaningful reforms are signed into law. If we only talk and don’t act, nothing changes. From housing affordability to mental health, and from public safety to education, those of us who write our laws and decide how to spend the public’s money must remember that when ...

Nativity scenes show real meaning of Christmas

This past week I did something I hadn’t done since eighth grade by being one of the performers in a Nativity program. I portrayed one of the Wisemen. I had a gown, a cardboard crown and a gift for baby Jesus. It was the 10th year that Boulder Estates has done a nativity program for residents and the public. A minister, Pastor Nathan Delich of First Baptist Church near Marshall, narrated the scriptures and spoke about the readings. All the actors had to do was march in and sit in the nativity area. First came Mary and Joseph followed by Angel Gabriel. The audience was told how ...

Noting our city’s progress this past year

Improvements to our streets, facilities, trails and parks are a result of collective effort by our City Council, staff and local contractors. This past year the city has had several major projects that were completed. Local contractor R&G Construction assisted the city with the installation of an improved trail crossing at Highway 59 and A Street, a trail extension from Boyer Street to Windstar (near Aldi) and an improved trail crossing at County Road 7 for the Camden Trail. In late fall of this past year, contractor A&C Excavating started construction of a trail to Southview ...

What is narcissism?

I frequently hear people say that someone whom they know is a narcissist. | am not sure that they are all using the same definition or criteria to make that judgment. What do psychologists mean when they say that someone is a narcissist? Where does the name come from? I have heard of two versions about where the name narcissist came from. To roughly summarize them, one version is that a man in ancient Greece named Narcissus was obsessively and consistently looking at and admiring the reflection of his face in mirrors. This obsession was a punishment by Nemesis, the goddess of ...

Enjoying my oyster stew

Food is many things: flavors, textures, smells, an excuse to use your fingers to clean a bowl that was used to mix chocolate cake batter. But food is also memory. It’s a time machine, resurrecting recollections that had shriveled like an orange peel on a scorching summer sidewalk. Oyster stew does the trick for me. Every Christmastime, my parents would whip up a big kettle of oyster stew. I was the only one among my seven siblings who would sip some stew with our parents. Which was just dandy; more for me. When December’s deep cold arrives something deep within me stirs, ...