Blog Posts — Page 3

  It seems like it’s becoming harder and harder to survive in the margins of society.  The conditions are more severe and the margin keeps getting larger.  Still, we need to hang onto hope.  To be specific, in the last 20 years the median income for households with less $30,000 in income fell by 12%.  Remember, if a person works 40 hours per week for 50 weeks of the year at $15 per hour, that Read More

“There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in it’s roar.”  Lord Byron “All of connection is optimally rupture and repair.” Bonnie Badenroch   Well, it looks like instead of a rapture, we ended up with a rupture.  It remains to be seen how well we will be able to repair it.  I guess we are left Read More

Here’s the big secret: It’s the fear of death that’s driving all this selfish behavior.  Research in evidence-based psychology suggests a strong link between fear of death and increased selfishness or self-centered behavior. Terror Management Theory (TMT) is a prominent framework that explains how the awareness of death leads individuals to prioritize self-preservation and self-interest to manage existential anxiety. Multiple studies have found that mortality reminders increase selfish behaviors and reduce prosocial actions, supporting the Read More

Behaviors don’t come out of nowhere.  They are typically either inspired by a vision, driven by values, or restrained by rules. There is a reason that any transformational change effort—whether it’s personal or cultural—starts with vision, values, and rules which clarify why change is necessary and how it should unfold.   Without a guiding purpose and grounding principles, all actions are, by definition, random and reactionary.  The insane behaviors we are witnessing now, whether it’s the Read More

One of my fondest memories is a vacation my wife and I took in Belize.  I remember so vividly the jungle treehouse, the cave kayaking, and the idyllic little island where we stayed.  What I keep returning to in my meditations, however, is the experience of scuba diving in the crystal clear waters off the shores.  What I still visualize is floating weightlessly above a brightly colored coral reef (they still existed back then) and Read More

What I have found compelling over the years is how technology has impacted both trust and transformation. Technology has played critical roles not only in the broad erosion of trust, but also in the steep acceleration of transformation.  In particular, I have been closely following the evolution of A.I. over the past few years – first by writing about early experiences and then by inserting A.I.-generated paragraphs into my posts.  You may have noticed that Read More

It feels like a hard rain is falling – sort of like buckets of hailstones pelleting our bodies as soon as we step into the flood of news.  Most of us are asking, “What do I do now?”  Bob Dylan, a legitimate recipient of a Nobel Prize, had an answer: I’m a-goin back out fore the rain starts a fallin I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest   Where the people are Read More

One of the school assignments my grandkids had this summer was to read Animal Farm by George Orwell. We all decided to read it and hold a mini book group to discuss it. We were all shocked to notice how prescient Orwell was 80 years ago. My granddaughter found the last sentence of the book to be the most stunning: “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from Read More

I recently visited the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo whose vision is a world where everyone feels a sacred sense of connection to themselves, each other, and the planet. Their mission is to help build the spiritual foundation for a loving world.Key values include the sacredness of all people and the planet, the integration of spirituality and science, and the transformative power of love.  Before lunch with Dr. Xiaoan Li, the Senior Program Director, I had Read More

I recently had the privilege of participating in a water ceremony co-sponsored by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, the Regional Land Conservancy, and the National Writers Workshop.  We hiked through lovely meadows (a land reclaimed and rehabilitated from its poisonous history as a golf course) and made our way to a bridge over a creek that feeds the Great Lakes.  The site is now an environmental asset in an essential watershed Read More

 “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”  James Baldwin I live in a small rural town in Northern Michigan. At a recent Harbor Days parade, the town celebrated the pillars of the community:  the fire department, police department, athletic teams, local queens, the library,   We even had a Mutt Strut so that everyone could display their beloved dogs.  It was a lovely gathering of positive Read More

“However vast the darkness, we must apply our own light.”  Stanley Kubrick “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” Albert Camus   When I was a soldier in Vietnam, I started reading Kierkegaard. Gosh, what a surprise! Søren Kierkegaard, a key figure in existentialist philosophy, explored themes of individual existence, faith, and the human condition. Several quotes encapsulate Read More