After a recent awards ceremony, I approached a fellow recipient and extended my congratulations and my appreciation. The former was an acknowledgement for her outstanding performance in achieving excellence in her work. My appreciation, however, was more personal. It was my heartfelt thanks for how her institution — a library — was a part of…
Almost every adult has a story about young people. Positive at times, but more frequently negative, these stories are just that – our fictional representations of intelligent, loving, passionate humans trying to make life work well. Our stories about teens are a major problem. We wait for teens to make something of themselves but fail…
This week I received a birthday greeting from a family member. Like all of the others from this relative, the rather expensive card was carefully selected — this one specific to a 70-year-old male — and simply signed with their name. There was no preface to the card nor a closing to personalize it. I…
Right now I cannot tell which of these facets of the recent rulings about travel bans and immigration by the Supreme Court and the Trump administration is most disturbing: the “limited” application of the ban, the use of the term bona fide, the lack of adequate outcry by any group of people whose relationships were…
I am a big fan of giving thanks, specific appreciations, and expressing delight. I set up meetings so that their last five minutes or so are devoted to creating the opportunity to say what we learned from each other or what we appreciated. I find that my work is best when I wrap my mind…
By age 10 I had become pretty adept at taking the pulse of a room. I knew when my dad had too much to drink, when a holiday was in danger of being cancelled, when the cake would go uneaten, when my mom was fed-up and overwhelmed. Most of the time I tested a space…
For a while now I have been promising some friends that I would construct a hat that included a sort of wing or tag off to one side, a la Minnie Pearl. I envision this chapeau to be less flashy than La Pearl’s but following the same premise. The hat would have an appendage that…
Communities emerge when people participate in common practices, depend on one another, make decisions together… For the past two weeks I have been posting about some of our common practices and depending on one another. I have noticed along the way that more often than not I draft my posts beginning with the antithesis of…
Toni Morrison exhorts us to read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book, Between the World and Me, by just putting it out there: “This is required reading.” The only way I could expand on that perfect direction is to possibly add, “Then, re-read.” I hope over the next many months to come back to Coates’ writing and thinking…
In the mid-1980s, during an experiential therapy workshop, I participated in an activity in which I was assigned the task of doing whatever it took (short of outright violence) to get out of a doorway being blocked by six strong men. Several times during the struggle which lasted well over an hour, I paused to…
Creating Community for Everyone 