FROM A CONVERSATION WITH RICHARD STENGEL Yes, the boarding master is the man who is in charge of the students in a college, yes. Now this was a remarkable man . . . He once gave a sermon [about] a man whose house was haunted by evil spirits. Continue reading
Personal Development
Interdependence is a choice only independent people can make
Interdependence is a far more mature, more advanced concept. If I am physically interdependent, I am self-reliant and capable, but I also realize that you and I working together can accomplish far more than, even at my best, I could accomplish alone. Continue reading
Love is a Verb
“In the great literature of all progressive societies, love is a verb. Reactive people make it a feeling. Continue reading
And where does the will of God fit into all this?
The divine intention is that we learn to make loving and wise choices. In so doing we develop our individualities and awaken from a symbolic sleep. However, it is just as essential to learn how to surrender to something bigger than ourselves. Continue reading
Transformation carries with it a wisdom and a knowing that we have a choice
Living a transformed life takes courage. People often think of courage only as what is called for in a moment of crisis, but that’s not the case. Courage is called for on a day-to-day, moment-to-moment basis, even when there’s nothing urgent at stake. It is up to us to create our lives consistent with who we know ourselves to be—making what’s at stake that which we say is at stake. It’s the stand we take on ourselves. That stand then becomes who we are.
It’s harder to be kind than clever
Bezos’s grandparents taught him a lesson in compassion that he related decades later, in a 2010 commencement speech at Princeton. Every few years Pop and Mattie Gise hooked an Airstream trailer to their car and caravanned around the country with other Airstream owners, and they sometimes took Jeff with them. On one of these road trips, when Bezos was ten and passing time in the back seat of the car, he took some mortality statistics he had heard on an antismoking public service announcement and calculated that his grandmother’s smoking habit would take nine years off her life. Continue reading
Your Parents
Your parents were doing something because they were taught to do those things. They were brought up by parents also; they had not come from heaven directly. So what is the point of throwing the responsibility backwards? It will not help to solve any problem. It will help only to unburden you from guilt. That is the good part, the beneficial part of psychoanalysis. It unburdens you from guilt. And the harmful part is that it does not make you feel responsible. Continue reading
When you are in the thick of things, you can get confused by small stuff……
A New Year’s Prayer
Dear Lord, please give me…
A few friends who understand me and remain my friends;
A work to do which has real value,
without which the world would be the poorer;
A mind unafraid to travel, even though the trail be not blazed;
An understanding heart;
A sense of humor;
Time for quiet, silent meditation;
A feeling of the presence of God;
The patience to wait for the coming of these things,
With the wisdom to recognize them when they come. Amen.
ONE TUSK 