Blog Posts — Page 7

Title: Time to remember I | Author: Polo | Source: Own Work | License: CC BY-NC 2.0

The Second Question

“God may be in the details, but the goddess is in the questions. Once we begin to ask them, there’s no turning back.” —Gloria Steinem “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.” —Albert Einstein In the age of sound bites, skimming, and superficial answers, we need to dig deeper for substantive solutions. Our inclination is to find “quick fixes” Read More

Title: Datura 2, 2006 | Author: Roxy Paine | Source: Roxy Paine Studio/James Cohan Gallery | License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Conflict Clarity

“Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.” —William James We all face conflicts in life. Conflicts occur then people have different points of view, values, and principles. There is no way we can avoid conflicts. We can develop a healthy attitude toward conflict, however, that enables us to calmly view differences as opportunities for growth. Healthy Read More

Title: Geodesic | Author: Clayton Shonkweiler | Source: Flickr | License: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Blindness

“We’re blind to our blindness. We have very little idea of how little we know. We’re not designed to know how little we know.” —Daniel Kahneman I just finished two incredible books about entirely different subjects with the same central theme: We are searching for meaning in the midst of massacres by blinding ourselves to our ultimate destruction. In Machines Like Me, Ian McEwan leverages his skills as a novelist to craft a story that Read More

Title: Shikoku Temple Pilgrimage (八十八ヶ所巡) (32) | Author: american_rugbier | Source: Own work | License: CC BY-SA 2.0

Peace Babies

I learned what it was like to live in a first-world country over the past two weeks: no litter, no homelessness, on-time bullet trains, state-of-the-art communications, universal health care, and lower levels of inequality and crime than almost any developed country. Less than 1 civilian in 100 owns a gun compared to 127 guns per 100 civilians in the United States. And children have affordable access to quality education from Pre-K (starting at 2 years Read More

Sun shining through a tree and steam at Norris Geyser Basin | Credit: Neal Herbert / Yellowstone National Park | License: CC0

Systematic Sensitization

“Have we raised the threshold of horror so high that nothing short of a nuclear strike qualifies as a ‘real’ war? Are we to spend the rest of our lives in this state of high alert with guns pointed at each other’s heads and fingers trembling on the trigger?” ― Suzanna Arundhati Roy “The Cherokee used to fear that taking a photo would make them lose their souls. Over exposure and desensitization is pretty close Read More

Title: Steel wire rope 2, Rotherhithe, 30 seconds | Author: tubb | Source: Own Work | License: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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

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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

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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

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Inner and Outer Life

“Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.” ―Vivian Greene “Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.”  ―Maya Angelou A standard principle in counseling is that you have to go down and in before you can come up and out, i.e. doing the inner work is a fundamental requirement of doing meaningful outer work. Taking time for introspection is not giving in to Read More

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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

Powering and Empowering

In collaboration with Artie Vipperla, Founder, Energy’s Way Real leaders can step into big moments and make something big happen. They bring a personal power to critical moments that makes all the difference. The key is to recognize the key moments where extra power is needed and to bring total being into those moments before it is too late. Think Churchill. Think Martin Luther King. Where did they find the personal power to make such Read More

Title: Apex Predator | American Football | Author: Fantich & Young | Source: | License: CC BY NC-ND 2.0

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

Photo by aitoff, CC0

Seven Essential Qualities of Leadership

“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” —Laurel Thatcher Ulrich In 1982, my dear friend Dr. Mark Edwards introduced a fair, impartial and objective tool to measure leadership effectiveness. He called it 360 feedback, which is now ubiquitous in organizations throughout the world. The idea is to give leaders the gift of multi-source feedback on critical leadership competencies so that they can understand more clearly how they are perceived by direct reports, peers, and more senior executives. Read More

#LiamGillick's The Game of War #installation at the @fundacao_serralves teaches museum-goers about military theory in a chess-like game sprawled over a game board of 500 squares. | Author: @mafaldamarcos | Source: designmilk on Flickr | License: CC BY-SA 2.0

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

Title: clay | Author: Dean Hochman | Source: deanhochman on Flickr | License: CC BY 2.0

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]

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

Title: Leonard Cohen at the Nice Jazz Festival 2008 14 | Author: Guillaume Laurent | Source: Own work | License: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The Flame

Oh Leonard, how we miss you!! You lightened our days and emboldened our hearts. When I’m feeling dark and depressed after plowing through the New York Times every morning, I often call out to Alexa, “Please play Leonard Cohen.” Last week, when I made my repetitive request, Alexa started the shuffle with “You Want It Darker.” Here are the opening lyrics: If you are the dealer, I’m out of the game If you are the Read More

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

Title: Diamond Tracing | Author: Eric Gjerde | Source: origomi | License: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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

Title: Novermber 25, 2014 | Author: David Gabriel Fischer | Source: THE ZEN DIARY www.thezendiary.com | License: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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

Title: Opening The Objectivist Drug Party - Zach Blas & Genomic Intimacy - Heather Dewey-Hagborg | Author: Hanneke Wetzer | Source: M U Eindhoven | License: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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

Title: Balance | Author: Sarah Horrigan | Source: Own work | License: CC BY-NC 2.0

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