For the past eight years, I have had the privilege of speaking to second-year students at local high schools. My topic? What I learned from 4,000 hours, over 20 years, answering more than 11,000 phone calls on the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. I take seriously the fact that I have been given 45 minutes out […]
Loving the Person Who Most Needs Our Love Read More »
Note: I recently cofacilitated a Lifelong Learning course on “Awe.” For the final session I challenged the participants to write something inspired by our five weeks together. Here is what I wrote: Who Am I? Who am I, and what will remain of me after I am gone? These questions are not for us to
A young woman, despite suffering from anxiety and clinical depression, found herself in a caring, loving relationship. She admitted she never thought she would find someone as loving and generous as her current partner. However, she was riddled with guilt about the difficulties he faced dealing with her frequent afflictions. “I am not good enough
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“I’m done. I can’t take it any longer.” she said. “I’ve suffered from depression and anxiety since I was a teen, and I simply cannot do it any longer.” This call arrived many years into my tenure on the suicide hotline, so I was not surprised by its beginning. It was how the call ended
On May 25, I was one of the presenters at PechaKucha Batavia. PechaKucha is a format in which you present 20 slides for 20 seconds each. I shared “Questions That Matter.” Unfortunately, the accompanying slides are unavailable, but here are my questions:
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“Perfect is the enemy of good.” Voltaire Sometimes perfect finds us when we least expect it. In the Fall of 2021, I was asked to give a keynote at a meeting of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) for school districts across the state of Illinois. I could never have conceived how this invitation would help
I have come to realize—even though I may wish otherwise—I will never grasp more than a sliver of reality. In a recent post, I noted how our view of reality is fragmented and distorted because we only absorb a small fraction of the infinite sensory inputs we experience at any moment. As a result, everything
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One of the most profound lessons I have extracted from nearly 20 years answering calls (11,000 or more) on the Suicide Prevention Lifeline is that each of us constructs an image—a tapestry—we truly believe represents reality, but turns out to be ambiguous, misleading, and very often wrong. Despite its extraordinary abilities, our brains are easily
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I recently discovered that, 117 years ago, the United States Supreme Court enforced a Cambridge Massachusetts health board’s smallpox vaccination order. The plaintiff—an anti-vaxxer—claimed their ‘individual liberty.’ That liberty, it was said, included, not only the right to afflict themselves, but also the right to cause others to be afflicted. When I learned of this
Every. Single. Day. Read More »
“When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.” Billy Graham I am scheduled to present my book, Humanity’s Journey Home, to a group of lifelong learners. But I’m frightened. I’m glad I wrote the book…I really am. However, there are days I wish I hadn’t. It’s not a book
Contagious, Courageous Conversations Read More »