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Sacrifice

“In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own?” is the title for the recent essay written by Pulitzer Prize winner Nikole Hannah-Jones.

She writes, “A decade ago, I made a decision about my daughter’s education that I hoped would challenge New York City’s separate and unequal school system. Now 16, she thinks I made the wrong choice.”

In the essay, she chronicles her best intentions to align her actions with her values, her confidence to advocate for change, and the questions now being asked by a child who knows her situation could have been better.…


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Offering

I sat on a park bench having coffee with an old friend. A man came up to us asking if we had any change. In our increasingly money-less society, we did not. Still he smiled and offered a small bouquet of flowers freshly picked from the park to my friend. He complimented her, made a few mildly inappropriate jokes which resulted in a shared laugh among the three of us and went off about his day.…


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Motives

Thanks to those who answered my call for support last week. It is greatly appreciated. I hope more do the same this week

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There is an old adage that we should never question another person’s motive. It harkens back to medieval days when to do so was to question one’s honor and potentially end in a deadly duel. Later it was popularized by Dwight Eisenhower who believed it undermined trust.…


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Supporters

“WHERE ARE YOU???”

So screams the owner of A.F.C. Richmond into a television camera, as her frustration in her fans not supporting their women’s team boils over in a recent episode of Ted Lasso.

Many purport to support both her club in general and women’s soccer in particular but their actions contradict their sentiment. They aren’t just figuratively standing on the sidelines, they are literally not even in the half-filled stadium.

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Labor

Some random observations about labor on Labor Day.

Last week, waiting on the train platform, I could not help but notice how many people were staring down at their phones – perhaps already beginning their day of labor. A few looked up and out across the Hudson River to take in the splendid Palisades. I wonder who had a less laborious beginning to their day.

I went to work near Union Square, which was the site for the first Labor Day Parade in 1882.

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Paint

Last week, I walked into two classrooms at different universities where I will be teaching in the fall.

One had been given a fresh coat of paint over the summer. The other had not.

This may seem like a small detail but research shows a correlation between how well-maintained a classroom is and a whole host of student outcomes. These range from absenteeism to student achievement.…


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Drop-off

Over the course of the last few weeks, over ten million college students are being dropped off on campuses across the country. Some for the first time, others for the last.

I fall into the former category.

It was a day marked on the calendar for months. One I anticipated with great sadness. Just booking the hotel for the drop-off weekend brought a few tears to my eyes.…


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Famiglia

What do you call it when a family goes away during the summer?

In the simplest of terms, it is a trip to someplace else.

Most call it a vacation. Defined as “time away from work or school used for rest, travel or fun.” The Latin and French root of the word means to be free.

Similarly some associate this time with an escape. Others an opportunity to explore – either parts of the world or themselves.…


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Watch

Last week, I watched:

A thrilling World Cup Final with my family that regularly produced “oooh’s” and “ahh’s”;

A person shamelessly photobomb the winner’s celebration, producing audible “ughs” in our home;

The Broadway cast of Titanique having the time of their lives while spoofing the movie Titanic, resulting in an hour and a half of my constant laughs and guffaws;

The movie version of Dear Evan Hanson, that landed more heavily than the first time I saw it, producing streams of tears;

Biblical level thunderstorm replete with lightning strikes on both sides of the Hudson River, leaving me in awe of nature’s power;

A friend poignantly deliver the eulogy at her mother’s funeral, filling me with both admiration for her strength and deep sadness for her loss;

A glowing pregnant woman in a flowing dress helping her cute toddler stumble up the steps to our local library, forcing a smile on my face after a tough morning;

A House sub-committee hearing on C-SPAN until 2:00AM investigating how the our naitonal museums reflect American History, leaving me fascinated by how differently political parties see our collective story.…


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DMV

I’m sitting down to write this two hours later than I normally would. The delay is the result of a trip to the DMV.

Before jumping to conclusions and assuming the stereotypical DMV experience. Let me first say that the people were all wonderful. A young man greeted me at the door asking me what I needed and handing me the required paperwork. A young lady escorted me to the scanner to check in and offered me a pen to help fill out the form.…


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Catharsis

Last week, I watched two movies.

The first was Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World. It was a wonderful film exploring the life of the poet whose powers of observation – particularly of the natural world – were unmatched.

The second was The Karate Kid.

On the surface, these films could not be any different. But they – in different ways – reflect the cathartic value writing provides to both the writer and their audience.…


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America

When America celebrated her 200th birthday, I was a little boy living in Boston. I remember the tall ships dominating the Boston Harbor – led by the recently restored USS Constitution, more affectionately referred to as Old Ironsides. Flags waved everywhere, school children flocked to the Freedom Trail, Bunker Hill and other famous Bostonian revolutionary sites. Things seemed simpler and more comfortable – even the temperature was in the cool 70s.…


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Nostalgia

Sandwiched in between failed attempts at two different Brandy Melville stores to procure a grad fit for my daughter, I went for a walk. The walk ostensibly was to go from one store location in the Village to another in SoHo but turned into a walk down memory lane.

I strolled through old neighborhoods where I lived and worked many years ago. Recalling nights out that began with a burger at the Corner Bistro and included stops in bars like the White Horse Tavern and Barrow’s Pub.…


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Winds

As I sat on my patio, I watched the American flag dancing in the wind. As the gusts flew stronger, it became so tangled around the pole and its own halyard that it was hard to imagine how it would ever fly freely again.

And yet within a matter of minutes it did.

Shortly thereafter, a rainbow manifested across the clouded sky. Moments later it was gone.

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Retreat

I am writing this from a convent.

It is the location of a personal writing retreat I have been on for the last two plus days.

To retreat is to withdraw or pull back. Sometimes it is from conflict, other times from society or even ourselves.

A retreat at a convent is, as you might imagine, a unique experience. There are only a dozen or so guests here at this vast property.

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Forgive

Recently I was watching a pivotal scene from the show Shrinking. A seventeen year old girl was confronting the man who had killed her mother in a drunk driving accident. As he was trying to explain himself and taking full responsibility for his actions, she interrupts him mid sentence and blurts out “I forgive you.” There is an incredible sense of longing in her eyes as she speaks.

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Earnest

What do Pope Leo XIV, the movie Sheep Detectives and a 15 year-old boy in Vermont who started Luke’s Military Museum in a trailer have in common?

Within the last week, all have been described as earnest.

There are several definitions of the word, but the meaning applied in each of these cases was “sincerity with seriousness or purpose.”

I hope seeing these seemingly unrelated examples is a signal that earnestness is becoming more in fashion as a trait we value.…


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Costs

This Memorial Day as we flock to parades to rightly honor our veteran’s sacrifice, perhaps it is also worth pausing to consider the costs of war – not just today but throughout history.

All told it is estimated that at least 500 million people have died in all wars and human conflicts throughout human history. Other estimates put the number at closer to 1.5 billion people.

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Overlooked

The other day while walking my dog, Scout, I stopped to pick a dandelion. It had reached that point in its life cycle and it was ripe for picking and as children are wont to do – blowing upon. Releasing their intricate umbrella shaped seeds into the air creating the possibility for new life. I’m not sure what prompted me to re-engage in this childhood tradition, but it was wonderful.…


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Ma

Yesterday was Mother’s Day. Eighty-five million moms across the United States hopefully felt some level of appreciation. Today, another three thousand will join their ranks as they bring their first born into the world.

I’ve written about moms frequently over the years. Topics ranged from the surprising history of Mother’s Day, ideas for belated Mother’s Day gifts, the challenges mom’s faced over COVID, and our unfortunate tendency to take them for granted.…


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Divides

Last Wednesday night, sitting in the dugout waiting for our softball game to begin, the umpire yelled towards us – presumably continuing a conversation started with one of my teammates about politics.

“My sister is a libtard out West. I don’t even talk to her anymore. She lives in Oregon and I hope she stays out there.”

The hostility and apparent sense of self-satisfaction with his words was jarring.

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Students

Last week, I had the honor to sit and watch students stand up in front of a room full of adults and move us through the power of their words and expressions.

On Monday, we hosted our second annual Social Mobility Lab Summit at City College of New York. It is typical for events like these to bring in a keynote speaker whose expertise on the subject matter is nationally renowned.

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Easy

Easy is a word that we throw around maybe a little too often. Once we have mastered a task whether learning to tie our shoes or solving an algebraic equation, its familiarity can make that task second nature to us. Our instinct when teaching or trying to help others with that same task is to tell them reflexively, “it’s easy.”

This well-intentioned remark designed to encourage someone to try something that may seem daunting can actually have unintended consequences.…


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Fun

“It will be a fun day if we let it.” These were the words of wisdom I overheard a young mom share with her two toddlers during our recent trip to Disney World.

On one level it might seem as if having fun at Disney didn’t require a pep talk. On the other, as evidenced by the number of meltdowns you see throughout the day, it is clearly not automatic.…


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Breaks

Breaks come in all shapes and sizes. Some are long, others short. We take breaks from people, work, activities, and responsibilities. We can take a break from one thing or everything. Breaks can be physical or mental. They can be of our own choosing or thrust upon us. They can be scheduled or spontaneous. They can be taken for fun, to de-stress, to relax or to recuperate.…


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