Blog Posts — Page 3

“Donald, following the lead of my grandfather and with the complicity, silence, and inaction of his siblings, destroyed my father.  I can’t let him destroy my country.”  Mary L. Trump “I came to poetry through the urgent need to denounce injustice, exploitation, and humiliation.  I know that’s not enough to change the world.  But to remain silent would have been an intolerable complicity.”  Tahar Ben Jelloun, a Moroccan writer One of my favorite songs is Read More

“The wise man looks into space, and does not regard the small as too little, not the great as too big; for he knows that there is no limit to dimensions.”  Lao Tsu A dear friend of mine just passed away.  She was 76 years old and had been struggling with dementia.  She recently suffered a fall and related complications.  She died in peace in a beautiful hospice setting surrounded by her loving family.  She Read More

“These are the times that try men’s souls.”  Thomas Paine “The science of psychology has been far more successful on the negative side than on the positive side . . . It has revealed to us much about human shortcomings, illnesses, and sins, but little about human potentialities, virtues, aspirations, or health.”  Abraham Maslow “We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community.  Our ambitions must be broad enough Read More

“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.”  Margaret Wheatley “By three methods, we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.”  Confucius “Research is formalized curiosity.  It is poking and prying with a purpose.”  Zora Neale Hurston “It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a Read More

In this post, I’m going to make the case for higher taxes.  Yes, very popular subject.  At the end, I will share what my 12 year old grandkids have to say—ahh, from the mouths of children.  The case for raising taxes encompasses concerns for social justice, economic stability, and environmental sustainability.  When governments implement progressive tax policies, they are able to reduce income inequality, fund essential public services, confront global challenges, and invest in natural Read More

Sometimes I feel like a pundit without pedigree or platform.  I guess that makes me a lonely voice in the wilderness.  I often wonder about how many people actually read this blog, but I’m less concerned about broadening my reach than deepening my connection with the people I care about.  To make myself vulnerable by openly communicating my thoughts and feelings.  To invite meaningful conversation.  Writing not only helps me clarify my own thoughts, but Read More

“Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible—the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.”  Virginia Satir, American author and therapist “The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.”  Ruth Benedict, American anthropologist Evidently, we are suffering from a shortage of nurturing families, and anthropology has failed.  Feelings of worth are Read More

“If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists – to protect them and to promote their common welfare – all else is lost.”  Barack Obama “You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.”  Anton Chekhov   Here are the results of a 2023 Gallup Poll Survey on Institutional Trust.  The numbers represent the percentage of people in the United States who have a great deal Read More

Every summer, my wife and I visit my childhood friends, Bob and Norma.  Bob lives on 25 acres of farmland near Grand Rapids, Michigan, which includes a small pond with the most delicious blue gills ever hatched.  No hyperbole here.  Bob spends all year catching, cleaning, and freezing the fish so that when we visit, he is prepared for a feast.  Well, we are not the only beneficiaries of his generosity, but he does reserve Read More

“It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.”  —Eckhart Tolle “Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power.  We have guided missiles and misguided men.”  —Martin Luther King, Jr. “Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.”  —Buddha “You have to be in the world to understand what the spiritual is about, and you have to be spiritual in order Read More

As we begin one of the most consequential years in history, I wanted to reflect on three themes that may play a big role in how the year turns out: Access, Excess, and Success.  I’m sure there are many other words that might capture what’s most important at this particular point in history, but these three, for me, seemed to cut to the chase of what we face. The questions I’ve been wrestling with that Read More

“It is easy to romanticize poverty, to see poor people as inherently lacking agency and will.  It is easy to strip them of human dignity, to reduce them to objects of pity. This has never been clearer than in the view of Africa from the American media, in which we are shown poverty and conflicts without any context.”  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of Americanah   “It is the consistency of the information that matters for Read More

The problem:  Global carbon dioxide emissions from the fossil fuels industry exceeded 37 billion metric tons in 2022 – their highest level ever.  Since 1990, global C02 emissions have increased by more than 60 percent. Based on a business-as-usual trend, C02 emissions are forecast to increase to some 43 billion metric tons in 2050.  Even if many of the agreements to decrease C02 emissions that came out of the COP28 conference were implemented, a recent Read More

My father and grandfather were both farmers for much of their lives.  They prepared the soil, planted the seeds, pulled the weeds, nurtured the plants, and harvested the produce that resulted from all that care and hard work.  I’m sure it must have been very satisfying for them to see the fruits of their labor.  They never longed for a life defined by titles, trophies, or treasures.  Their goal, as I want to imagine it, Read More

“The five stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance – are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with the ones we lost.  They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling.  But they are not stops on some linear timeline in grief.”  Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, best-selling author on death and dying.    “Sustainable development is the pathway to the future we want Read More

“A rejection of absolutism, in all its forms, may sometimes slip into moral relativism or even nihilism, an erosion of values that hold society together, but for most of our history it has encouraged the very process of information gathering, analysis, argument, and persuasion which allows us to make better, if not perfect, choices – not only about the means to our ends, but also the ends themselves.”  Barrack Obama, The Audacity of Hope:  Thoughts Read More

“If we want to have good citizens, we need to create common spaces in which individuals can talk about the moral and ethical dilemmas that they have faced and how they resolve them.”  Howard Gardner   The more I read about the Israeli-Hamas War, the more confused I get.  The moral and ethical complexities are overwhelming.  I listen to Thomas Friedman, Brett Stephens, Nick Kristof, David Remnick, David French, David Brooks and Ezra Klein.  (Yes, Read More

“Even in the darkest of times we have the right to expect some illumination, and that such illumination may well come less from theories and concepts than from the uncertain, flickering, and often weak light that some men and women radiate, in their lives and their works. . . . . Eyes so used to darkness as ours will hardly be able to tell whether their light was the light of a candle or that Read More

“In the face of patriarchy, it is a brave act indeed for both men and women to embrace, rather than shame or attempt to eradicate, the feminine.”  Alanis Morissette “When humans invented inequality and socioeconomic status, they came up with a dominance hierarchy that subordinates like nothing the primate world has ever seen before.”  Robert Sapolsky “We can learn the art of fierce compassion – redefining strength, deconstructing isolation and renewing a sense of community, Read More

“Age does not protect you from love.  But love, to some extent, protects you from age.”—Anais Nin “Age is an issue of mind over matter.  If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.””—Mark Twain Last week, my wife went to North Carolina to visit a dear friend of 50 years who, after a torturous process and diligent search, was placed in a cognitive care unit due to her dementia.  We had known our friend as a Read More

In multiple surveys of presidential historians and biographers over the past 40 years, five presidents almost universally appear at the top of the “most effective leader” list:  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and the Roosevelts.  While there is much less consensus around who else should be similarly recognized,  if it were up to me, I would add three more faces to Mount Rushmore:  FDR (consistently picked among the top 5) as well as JFK Read More