Innocence ends when one is stripped of the delusion that one likes oneself. ― Joan Didion, On Self-Respect Lately I have been writing an hour or more a day. Not the kind of writing that fulfills an obligation outside of myself, like responding to emails, sending thanks to contributors, or reporting on progress for a grant. I…
Il ne faut pas toucher aux idoles: la dorure en reste aux mains. [Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers.] ― Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary During World War I, nine million people died. No event before that, except for possibly the Black Death in the middle ages, was as catastrophic. Nothing after that…
The prince is never going to come, everybody knows that; and maybe Sleeping Beauty’s dead. ― Anne Rice, The Queen of the Damned Recently in a conversation with a trusted friend, I remembered an incident that happened nearly 30 years ago. I was in a workshop in which problem solving was the prime topic. There were somewhere…
It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old; they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams. ― Gabriel García Márquez Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Mandy Carter. There were many, many reasons I enjoyed the meeting, but perhaps the one I am savoring most is that we are…
There are no perfect human beings! Persons can be found who are good, very good indeed, in fact, great. There do in fact exist creators, seers, sages, saints, shakers, and movers…even if they are uncommon and do not come by the dozen. And yet these very same people can at times be boring, irritating, petulant,…
Creating Community for Everyone 