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“The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue.” —Malala Yousafzai “The reality today is that we are all interdependent and have to co-exist on this small planet. Therefore, the only sensible and intelligent way of resolving differences and clashes of interests, whether between individuals or nations, is through dialogue.” —Dalai Lama This past weekend I had the privilege of introducing Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon, authors of The Read More

“Today we shall have come through a period of loose thinking, descending morals, and an era of selfishness, among individual men and women and among Nations”. FDR   On my 80th birthday, my daughters gave me a word cloud poster that summarized the themes in more than 400 posts I have written over the years.   The four words that stood out in the biggest and boldest lettering were:  Leadership, Culture, Community and Possibility.  When I Read More

I can be so annoying at times.  Just ask my grandkids.  I’m always looking for a “teachable moment” to impart the pearls of wisdom I imagine I have picked up over the years.  For example, in a recent vacation to Costa Rica, we went on a nature hike with an amazing guide.  He was extremely passionate about the birds, bugs, and beetles in the jungle.  He had deep knowledge of every element of the ecosystem Read More

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”  Mahatma Gandhi “Chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans have been living for hundreds of thousands of years in their forest, living fantastic lives, never overpopulating, never destroying the forest. I would say that they have been in a way more successful than us as far as being in harmony with the environment.   Jane Goodall “With an eye made quiet by the Read More

“Vigilance means to be alert to what happens inside, so you can catch an old, collective habit pattern.”  Eckhart Tolle “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”  Thomas Jefferson “The battle is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.”  Patrick Henry “When good people in any country cease their vigilance and struggle, then evil men prevail.”  Pearl Buck   In another brilliant Ezra Klein podcast, Ezra interviews Naomi Read More

I’m going to start this post with quotes from four people from very different “neighborhoods” with very different perspectives:  a politician/inventor, an author, an artist, and a football coach.  You might expect to hear opposing points of view from such a variety of voices.  And yet, it turns out, they all agree on the importance of good neighboring. Let’s start with Benjamin Franklin, a founding father and signer of our constitution, who said:  “Be at Read More

I’ve been feeling the chaos of alphabet soup consuming my life.  TDS, TS, and PTSD have all combined to leave me feeling discombobulated and anxious.  Even heavy doses of exercise, meditation, music, and community connections have not been a sufficient antidote for my stress.  Maybe I should just read all those TS’s as “Tough Shit.” Here’s the story. I’m 81 years old, a Vietnam Vet, and I have a mild case of Tourette Syndrome (TS). Read More

“Oh, I am very weary, Though tears no longer flow; My eyes are tired of weeping, My heart is sick of woe.”  Anne Bronte We have been seeing and hearing a great deal about waste, war and woe these days.  We are weary and weeping, but I hope our tears still flow.   Anne Bronte, a feminist writer in the 1800’s, had no idea of the woe and weeping that was still to come.   In 2026, Read More

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” James Baldwin About 3 million years ago, early Hominins in Africa discovered that a stone could be used to crush objects they had previously been unable to penetrate.  This first known tool, the hammerstone, accelerated the evolution of our early ancestors.  They advanced because they were able to concede that tools, however rudimentary, could exceed brute force. About Read More

“Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.”—Rabindranath Tagore “Keep the faith, my friend,” is a commonly used, breezy goodbye that we hear often without giving much thought to it.  And yet, faith spans deeply held religious beliefs, doctrinal commitments, and emotional encouragement.  It generally sends the message of maintaining hope, trust, or loyalty in the face of adversity, doubt, or depression.  For many Christians, it is a direct Read More

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” Frederick Douglass I may not be broken, but I’ve been exceptionally lucky.  In my morning meditation, I review the times in my life when I felt truly welcome.  The list is long: at birth, first breath, mother’s breast; friends next door, in high school, and in college; my future wife meeting me in LA when I returned from Vietnam; my in-laws, my own Read More

In 1969, I marched on the capital in Washington, D.C. with 500,000 other protesters carrying candles and pleading for peace in Vietnam.  I had just returned from my tour of duty there. The war finally ended in 1975 when the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong stormed Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) and took over the government.  The protests made a difference. Now, more than 50 years later, I’m still marching.  This time in Read More