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The Power of Friendship (When Friendship is a Verb)
The word “friend” is a derivative of the verb “freon,” which means, “To love.” A friend is a person. And a friend is a verb… Photo Credit: tico_24 via Compfight cc Two years ago, as my daughter was...
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Reflections on Beauty (From Main Street U.S.A.)
Beauty. There’s an entire industry dedicated to it. But what if beauty isn’t something you can buy or paint on or put on? What if beauty isn’t even something you can create? What if beauty is a reality...
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Dear ISIS (A Letter Between Human Beings)
Photo Credit: le calmar via Compfight cc Dear ISIS, I know I’m supposed to hate you. I know I’m supposed to be angry. I know I’m supposed to want revenge. I know I’m supposed to demand justice at any...
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The Kindness Challenge
Let’s admit it: we’re obsessed with winning. Just look around. Everything has become a competition. Our will-to-win is everywhere, and it’s not going anywhere. But what if we gave it something better...
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It’s All the Rage: How Outrage Has Become a Virtue
This post is a bad idea—an invitation for indignation. Because I’m about to suggest we all act a little less controversial and, these days, suggesting less controversy has become the most controversial...
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BREAKING NEWS: This Just Happened and the World May Never Be the Same
Photo Credit: Maria Eklind via Compfight cc (UnTangled News)—The global community was rocked yesterday by a divorce that may alter the course of humanity and the future of the planet. UnTangled News...
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The Antidote to All the Crap in Your Facebook Feed
When I’m procrastinating on writing—due to fear, fatigue, fear, lack of inspiration, did I mention fear?—Facebook is like a magnet. One day recently, I could feel its pull, so I decided to trick myself...
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The Parable of the Mass Shooting That Didn’t Happen
The gun sits on the car seat beside him. He watches the people lined up outside the club. People? More like swine. Robotic pigs, programmed to get into lines, to work and to sweat all day and then, at...
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Our Best Hope(s) in a Summer of Violence
Photo Credit: Bigstock (enterlinedesign) An hour before gunshots rang out in Dallas, I was playing a game of basketball with my kids in the driveway—a game called Around the World, in which it’s every...
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What We’ve All Been Searching for Since Childhood (A Post About Belonging)
At first, it sounded like nonsense. A few weeks ago we picked up my son, Aidan, from two weeks of residential wilderness camp. He’d attended the camp with a friend from our town, and we were taking...
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How to Dream a Better Dream Than This Nightmare We’re Living In
Have you been feeling a little more afraid than usual? You know, just a little more…uneasy? I have. So have many people I know. I couldn’t make any sense of it, though, until I started having a...
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A Father’s Letter to His Little Ones (In the Wee Hours of the Election)
Dear Little Ones, You are already asleep in your beds. It’s late, and I’m going to bed. It’s been a long election day. When this day began, I woke up, and I walked to the corner coffee shop in the dim,...
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How to Talk with Family About Politics This Holiday Season
What do you get when you mix family, the holidays, and politics? Gratitude and goodwill toward all, right? Well, actually… Photo Credit: Bigstock (avemario) A number of years ago—when marijuana was...
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How to Choose Your Friends in the Aftermath of the Election
The Presidential election has tested friendships and relationships of all kinds. In the wake of such a divisive contest, there may be only one truly healing way to choose your people… Photo Credit:...
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What Is Christmas? (It’s When We Defiantly Choose the Light)
Photo Credit: Bigstock (mainagashev) Last weekend, I hosted my first Christmas party as an employer. Okay, the truth is, I didn’t host it. My business partner has the gift of hospitality, so he was in...
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Why We’re Lonelier Than Ever (and What to Do About It)
In Chicago, at the peak of the eclipse, you could still see about 13% of the sun. That is, I think, about how much remains of our communal life, as well. This is what I mean by that, this is the damage...
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What to Do When the News Is All Bad
I’m standing in the dark, but I can hear the daylight. In my neck of the woods, as autumn becomes more frail, cicadas mark the daytime—around midday, they awake and begin their daily song. Then, around...
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How to Recognize Where You Truly Belong
Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment. Or maybe, for the moment, I’m just feeling humble enough to hear the answer. Either way, on a random Sunday afternoon, I ask my oldest son, Aidan—a teenager with...
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Can You See Yourself in All of Them?
She stands there, small as any eight year-old, hidden in the towering aisles of the toy store. She picks up the Magic 8 Ball and shakes it. It comes up Yes. She sighs with relief. The question asked by...
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Let’s Stop Dismissing Our Young People (Our Decency May Depend Upon It)
My son recently pointed out how much I break the law. At first, I resisted what he had to say. Eventually, I surrendered to it. And, in doing so, I realized how much young people have to teach us about...
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