Note: This post will be published in the May-June Issue of Neighbors of Batavia magazine. Funny, how the cost of a ball can lead me to thoughts of the value of life itself. Several recent books (Antifragile, The Power of Habit and Thinking, Fast and Slow) reflect upon the human brain and the …
Books to Know & Love: Thinking, Fast and Slow
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman One premise of Kahneman’s best-selling work, Thinking, Fast and Slow, is that the mind operates as if it relies on two separate systems. “System 1” refers to our ability to look out into the world and draw an immediately coherent picture based on the data we take in. …
Regret at the End of Life
Steven Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, said it whimsically: few people on their deathbed wish they had spent more time at the office. But recent encounters leave me reflecting, considerably less whimsically, on what I might wish the moments just before I am called from this life. For ten …
Fait Accompli
Many operate from a belief that organizations, and lives, can be made successful through well-planned strategies and goals, supported by tightly-scheduled to-do lists. I have always questioned this belief system, and have never lived my life this way, Perhaps I am just looking to justify my obstinacy, however, a new book, Antifragile by Nassim Nicolas …
The Invitation
As a result of nearly 10 years on a suicide/crisis hotline and 7 years with a teen anti-drug, anti-alcohol program called Operation Snowball, I am aware there are too many websites extolling the virtues of self-injury, eating disorders and even suicide; and not nearly enough offering a place of refuge and hope. Based on an …
The Dream
Imagine for a moment you have returned to your childhood. In your infancy, at an age that precedes memory, you were given a blanket, which, in the intervening years, became your constant companion. You ran to find it every time the world came at you in a way far more complex than your innocence could …
Confusion on the Journey
Note: I beg your indulgence for this particularly long post. I have pulled it from a book I am trying to birth. It speaks to the confusion I face as I try to discern how humanity might find its way home. The more I learn, the more the explanations I grew up with are …
The World is Better for Our Being Rather than Our Doing
No matter what tragedy people are experiencing, their suffering is alleviated when they learn that others are standing with them. Some of my best teachers of this truth have been younger leaders. One in her twenties said, “How we are going is important, not where. I want to go together and with faith.”* Many …
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Love Never Fails
Many years ago, my heart was captured by stories—stories of authentic, caring community—shared with me by John McKnight of Northwestern University. They were so compelling, I asked John if he would introduce me to someone who was building community based on authentic care. Without hesitation he told me about Jackie Reed at the Westside …
Guilty Until Proven Innocent
Judi and I recently visited Williamsburg, Virginia. I did not realize, until we experienced the extraordinary reenactments, the vital role the people of Virginia played in our journey from independent colonies to a united nation. Two events in particular connected me to the 18th century—in different ways. One afternoon, we found ourselves in a small …