Celebrate every orange flag
“The truth is that everything that can be accomplished by showing a person when he’s wrong, ten times as much can be accomplished by showing him where he is right. The reason we don’t do it so often is that it’s more fun to throw a rock through a window …
Write to remember
“Every man’s memory is his private literature.” -Aldous Huxley Several months ago my friend Bob Van Hook sent me a poem written by a man who began losing his grip on memory a few years ago when he was 50 years old. The author, David Hollies, prefaced the poem …
Love unlovable people
“Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.” -Albert Schweitzer It’s easy to love people when they’re lovable. It’s harder when they’re not. In high school, I learned intricate details of the battles of the Civil War. I knew the …
Squeeze in next to someone, arm to arm
“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”–Albert Schweitzer Well, I was going to write about convertibles and fuzzy boots until …
Don’t stop to wave, you’ll drown
“Why are women immobile? Because so many feel like they’re waiting for someone to say, “You’re good, you’re pretty, I give you permission.” –Eve Ensler This week, I watched a videotape of Eve Ensler speaking at the 2004 Omega Institute “Women in Power” conference. Ensler is a playwright most famous …
Save face for someone else
“Our dignity is not in what we do, but what we understand.” – George Santayana When I was in high school, I had my dream job. Mrs. Barnett, the head librarian at the Morganton-Burke Public Library, had literally watched me grow up there. As a child, I was in the …
Embrace your clearness committee
“Whenever I climb, I am followed by a dog named Ego.” –Friedrich Nietzche I came across a story this week that intrigued me. I could see myself in it, if truth be told, and perhaps if you squint, you can see some tiny part of yourself in it as well. …
Search for beneficial surprise
Every summer, I escape to the beautiful countryside outside Portland, Oregon, to teach for a few weeks at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication. It’s a fantastic learning space, with people from all over the world. This summer, I’ll teach two 5-day courses: one from July 25-29 on “Building Effective …
Be outraged by your own racism
“No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.” –Elie Wiesel When my oldest daughter was in the first grade, she stopped me cold with just 16 words. “Mom,” she said as we stopped at a traffic light near Dupont …
Choose the tuxedo
KELLI DAVIS, Class of 2005 “If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us." –Herman Hesse Sometimes when I wake up too early and read the newspaper before having that first cup of coffee, and particularly …
