Cultute Change
Borders and Boundaries
“Vulnerability is based on mutuality and requires boundaries and trust. It’s not oversharing, it’s not purging, it’s not indiscriminate disclosure, and it’s not celebrity-style social media information dumps. Vulnerability is about sharing our feelings and our experiences with people who have earned the right to hear them.” —Brene Brown “Beauty has no boundaries, no rules, no colors. Beauty is like a religion. You can include everything inside it.” —Alessandro Michele “We must broaden the definition Read More
Allegiances and Aspirations
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands—one nation, under God, indivisible—with liberty and justice for all.” The New York Times reported on February 19, 2019 that an 11-year-old African American child in Florida was arrested for his behavior after refusing to stand and recite the pledge of allegiance. When a teacher confronted him for not standing, and then told him he should Read More
Harmony
“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 I just finished reading the book, Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson in which he describes the deceit and folly surrounding World War I resulting Read More
Crisis and Choice
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” —Abraham Lincoln “King’s response to our crisis can be put in one word: revolution. A revolution in our priorities, a reevaluation of our values, a reinvigoration of our public life and a fundamental transformation of our way of thinking and living that promotes Read More
The Roots of Madness
When she was in middle school, my younger daughter attended a private, girls academy. She encountered a culture there that was ruled by tall, skinny blonde girls. These privileged and pampered young women believed that their appearance gave them inordinate power and status. And they were right. As a small, Korean child my daughter didn’t have a “get in free” ticket to the elite club. I don’t believe these girls were born to be mean, Read More
MindShare
At a family holiday dinner my older daughter asked the table, “What are your hopes and dreams for 2019?” As we went around to each person, most folks wished for less political craziness and more environmental sanity. I agreed with those sentiments, but in my customary role as the outlier, I said I hoped to exude more calm in the current crisis, to stay positive in a sea of negativity, and to focus more on Read More
Freeing Genius and Healing Madness
“There is no great genius without some touch of madness.” —Aristotle “One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.” —Nietzsche “A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.” —Nikos Kazantzakis I have always been willing to tolerate idiosyncrasies in people whom I believe have deep substance or a higher perspective. This willingness has sometimes created conflicts in Read More
![The Library of Congress Hughey Gold [child with football]](https://rickbellingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/hugheygoldfb-2.jpg)
Football Culture
“When I won the world championship, in 1972, the United States had an image of, you know, a football country, a baseball country, but nobody thought of it as an intellectual country.” —Bobby Fischer Well Bobby, I guess the more things change the more they remain the same. Speaking of football, my family was recently watching the annual Ohio State vs. Michigan football game that would determine who would go to the Rose Bowl and Read More
Doing the Work
“Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.” —Gordon B. Hinckley I just finished reading five books that gave me a much deeper appreciation of the situation we are confronting. I recommend them highly: These Truths by Jill Lepore Fear by Bob Woodward Fascism: A Warning by Madeleine Albright The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis The World as It Is by Ben Rhodes I chose these books because all of the authors have done the heavy Read More
Good and Evil
“When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.” —Jimi Hendrix The world can be a brutal place, a place where people gain power not by being wise and respected, but by dominating and manipulating others. Nietzsche believed we needed to free ourselves from this dominance and to recognize that “good” and “evil” are just words—words that have been used by the powerful to justify anything they might choose Read More
False Equivalence
“I absolutely refuse to associate myself with anyone who cannot discern the essential night-and-day difference between theocratic fascism and liberal secular democracy.” —Christopher Hitchins We chartered a fishing boat this summer, and I asked the captain if he had experienced a drop in the number of lake trout and salmon he had been catching on his trips. He replied, “No, not much difference from years past.” I said, “That’s surprising given what scientists are saying Read More
Artificial Emotions
“The tragedy of life is in what dies inside a person while she or he lives – the death of genuine feeling, the death of inspired response, the awareness that makes it possible to feel the pain or glory of other people in yourself.” —Norman Cousins We just bought an Amazon Echo, so we would have the facts of the world at our simple command. “Alexa, what’s the weather?” “Alexa, what’s the news?” “Alexa, play Read More