Notice the metaphors all around you
I wonder sometimes if sprinklers are a metaphor for something. I’m teaching this month at an Institute that is housed on the campus of Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Once the 102 degree nonairconditioned temperatures of last week subsided and I escaped to the beach for a weekend, I have …
Plan ahead
I love this quote from S.J. Lec’s New Unkempt Thoughts: "Now that you have broken through the wall with your head, what will you do in the neighboring cell?"
Go to Pana-sea-ah
There is something wonderful about seeing new places in the world, seeking out new adventures, trying new foods and ways of being in the world, meeting new people. I’m all for that exploring, the kind that T.S. Eliot reminds us in his Four Quartets takes us right back where we …
Find yourself in the sea
My course on humor ends today at 5pm. At, oh, say, 5:01pm, I’ll be heading to the beach. And so, a poem from e.e. cummings in celebration of a few days at the sea: "maggie and millie and molly and may" maggie and millie and molly and maywent down to …
Learn in relationship
I love to teach. Even without air conditioning. And when I teach, in addition to learning as much as I’m teaching, I’m always reminded of Parker Palmer’s remarkable book, The Courage to Teach, from which this quote comes: "To teach is to create a space in which the community of …
Record your temperature
Always proud to be involved in something historic, I’m pleased to announce that I am participating – albeit without that grand, modern invention of air conditioning – in record temperatures in Portland, Oregon. I hate to admit it – and I’ll work on changing this unfortunate piece of my personality …
Teach and sleep
Dear Friends, I’m writing from a dorm room in beautiful Portland, Oregon, where I’ll spend the rest of the month, teaching. Since I won’t have the time or available brain cells to write any essays, I think I’ll post something simple each day, perhaps a quote I love and that …
Bust your toast rules
“Any fool can make a rule and any fool will mind it.” – Henry David Thoreau As my plane touched down in Washington, D.C., on June 25th, I could see the heat waving to me from the tarmac, a siren song of sweat and grumpiness. The jet way to the …
Celebrate INTERdependence Day
"The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you: they are unique manifestations of the human spirit." – Wade Davis Perhaps today’s national celebration of independence in the U.S. should evolve into a celebration of a new …
