(The World Trade Towers and the QEII Photo:Neal Boenzi/The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/09/08/us/sept-11-reckoning/towers.html#1 _____________________________________________________________ [As we head toward the fifteenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, I am reposting (with some revisions) something I wrote several years ago that still reflects my thinking about the primacy of creating and sustaining a community that prioritizes empathy. Since posting this […]
DNA Tests and the House of Humankind
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyaEQEmt5ls&w=560&h=315]Please watch the video above before reading my comments.I must admit from the start that I have not had DNA testing and thus cannot claim that I have felt the full power of the experience the people in the video felt upon receiving their results. However, I was powerfully affected by watching the story […]
Bombasticball–Let’s Take Our Ball and Go Home
It seems everybody is playing it. They are playing it in politics, in media, around water-coolers, after church on Sunday, in school hallways, on social media post comment threads, in post-game interviews, in the stands at High School (or Middle School or Elementary School) athletic events. Bombasticball. Bom-bas’tic-ball, n. a game played with sharpened tongues where combatants […]
Your Education: About You, Not About You
When Manny Ohonme of Samaritan’s Feet spoke to our group Friday, he celebrated our school’s diversity and our privilege to be a part of the SGIS community. He reminded us of just how rare it is in the world to have some of the things we may at times take for granted–friends, families, education, food, shelter, and…yes, shoes.
Opening Convocation Reflection: Good Neighbors in the SGIS Ecosystem
Indeed, a substantial part of the lives that I wish for each of you after your time at St. George’s is that you make all the ecosystems of which you are a member healthier and more sustainable. I am thinking of your colleges and universities and later, your cities and neighborhoods, for they are ecosystems as well.
Making Places and Creating What is Next: A Cum Laude and NHS Induction Speech
Working on my comments for our opening chapel of the year at St. George’s Independent School tomorrow, this blog entry from a couple of years ago came back to mind…