Blog Posts — Page 23
Gratitude and Humility
“I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness – it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.” —Brené Brown “Only a person who has passed through the gate of humility can ascend to the heights of the spirit.” —Rudolf Steiner My Vietnam vet buddy turned spiritual guru, Artie Vipperla, recently taught me a simple exercise that has triggered several breakthroughs in my practice. It’s called the “Turtle and Peacock.” 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
Binary Blindness
“Obviously, there is no such thing as race, and in many ways, sex is a continuum, not a binary. So it doesn’t make sense to label people in that way.” —Gloria Steinem I get to the airport 7 hours before departure in hopes of catching an earlier flight home. It’s a busy Friday so all flights are full. I’m stuck with the bleak prospect of surviving the whole day in a chaotic scene I deplore. Read More
Possibilists and Pragmatists
For me, dreaming is simply being pragmatic. —Shimon Peres There are probably a lot of things I do to drive my family crazy. Two behaviors high on the list, though, are surely my habit of rushing people to stay on my agenda and my constant attraction to whatever seems new and exciting—whether that’s pursuing a new idea or purchasing a new house. I guess I could best be described as an impatient possibilist. For me, Read More
Leading Change
In you have been wondering about what life might look like by the end of the 21st century, you may want to read a few of Ray Kurzweil’s books. Kurzweil, a pre-eminent futurist who graduated from MIT, formed multiple companies, and now works for Google as “Director of Engineering,” has shown that change is exploding exponentially, even though we cling to the belief that change is happening linearly.
Race
“My theory is this: Rather than having commentaries from the cheap seats, get involved and see what you can do. What can you do around your own community, within your own family, to try to improve race relations in our country? I think this is a responsibility that we all have as citizens.” —Valerie Jarrett
We
“I still can’t see, why Democracy means, everybody but me.” —Langston Hughes In a recent conversation with Due Quach (pronounced Zway Kwok), the creator and author of Calm Clarity, she shared new content she is developing to integrate lessons from the Johari Window, the Enneagram, and the Calm Clarity Brain 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 framework. It struck me as a brilliant idea to tie these three tools together. The Johari Window is a simple way Read More
Spirituality and Religion
“Religion is for people who are scared to go to hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been.” —Bonnie Raitt “Spirituality is meant to take us beyond our tribal identity into a domain of awareness that is more universal.” —Deepak Chopra My wife and I (and our dog, Henri) recently spent 38 hours driving from San Diego, California to Traverse City, Michigan. We didn’t want to put 10-year old Henri in the underbelly of Read More
Genius
I have always been willing to tolerate external idiosyncrasies in people when I see the substance and genius underneath the distracting behaviors. My family, understandably, has been intolerant of my tolerance when my commitments to unconventional people have had unpleasant consequences. It seems to me, however, that life is more exciting on the margins than in the middle.