Author: Rick Bellingham

“We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter.”  Denis Diderot “A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world,” Susan Sontag  Instructions for living a life: Mary OliverPay attention.Be astonished.Tell about it.    What is truth and how do we talk about it?  The answer to this question has become increasingly difficult to discern with the proliferation of disinformation Read More

Last week, I was walking on a gorgeous trail in Olympic National Park with my grandson when he asked me, “What are the key philosophies and principles that guide your life?” (My grandson knows how to ask terrific questions—and he knows the kind of questions that delight me). After a long “hmmm,” I responded, “The Buddhist philosophy of the willingness to open to opening to openness, and a quote from T.S. Eliot: ‘At the still Read More

“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”  Elon Musk   It seems to me we are experiencing a dearth of care and an abundance of carelessness.  In this post I’m going to posit what we might want to care more about and what we might be better off not caring about at all. I recently read three books that bring that idea into sharp focus.  The stories in these books dispel the Read More

“Giving is the highest expression of potency.”  Erich Fromm   This morning I woke up to the news that US stealth bombers dropped 30,000-pound bunker busters on Iran’s nuclear facilities. To me, this action sets up the ultimate test of military potency. Were the bombs “successful” in eliminating Iran’s nuclear capabilities? We don’t know. Do Iran and its proxies still possess enough potency to attack American interests in the region? We don’t know. Will North Read More

Full Disclosure:  This post is primarily AI generated.  My contributions were to 1) ask the right question (how should parenting styles shift from raising to relating over the seven stages of Erickson’s model of psychosocial development?) 2) lightly edit the content and add a few of my constructs, and 3) verify the sourcing for the content.  I chose not to add any personal stories to this content until the end, so it lacks a lot Read More

“The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.  Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk “Empathy is a necessary step for truth and reconciliation.”  Simon Baron-Cohen, British clinical psychologist “Reconciliation is a part of the healing process, but how can there be healing when the wounds are still being inflicted.”  N.K. Jimisin, American science fiction writer   In my morning meditation, I do an exercise in which Read More

“The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.” ― Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory   In March, 1967, I was a Greek God.  Yup, the Intra-fraternity Council had selected me as the frat-boy extraordinaire.  I was seen as the clean-cut, All-American, buttoned-up, locked-down, and closed-off model for fraternity life on campus.  In September of that same year I became a Read More

A gentle breeze, a whispered plea,“Grow, grow, grow,” you say to me.A tiny seed, in fertile ground,A future bright, all around.  With sun and rain, a patient hand,I heed your call, across the land.From humble root to reaching high,I touch the sky, as seasons fly. So whisper on, that soft command,To grow, grow, grow, hand in hand.For in this growth, a beauty lies,Reflected in my open eyes “Every Blade of Grass Has Its Angel that Read More

“Compassion is not hereditable. It can and therefore must be taught. The teaching of compassion, the exercise of the soul, will open the heart. And then nothing will be impossible.”   Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp “Compassion is a organizing principle for business leaders, government leaders, arts and culture, humanitarians – you need a working principle, especially when the world is colliding into each other every day”.  Salman Ahmad “In a world where force is too often the Read More

  “Disinformation is more than just lying: it’s the denial and twisting of reality in order to present some desired image to the rest of the world.”  Will Hurd, an American politician, former CIA officer, and Texas representative in the US House.  “Refusal to believe until proof is given is a rational position; denial of all outside of our own limited experience is absurd.” Annie Besant, an English socialist, theosophist, freemason, women’s rights and Home Read More

  J. B. Pritzer, Governor of Illinois, struck the right tone in his recent address in New Hampshire: “Standing for the idea that the government doesn’t have the right to kidnap you without due process is arguably the MOST EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN SLOGAN IN HISTORY,” “Today, it’s an immigrant with a tattoo. Tomorrow, it’s a citizen whose Facebook post annoys Trump.”  Pritzer may be right.  I’m glad he is speaking out, AND we need stronger narratives Read More

When I turned 70, my daughter Rebecca, said, “Dad, you should stop writing books and start a blog.”  Since, I highly value her perspective, I replied, “Good idea.”  Now, as I have turned 80, I can look back on the 399 essays I posted on this blog during that decade and review the topics addressed.  I decided to organize all of them into an accessible format and to use the alphabet as the organizing construct, Read More