Ira Glass has said “audio is the most visual medium.” He was referring to the ability of gifted storytellers to paint pictures in our minds using the intimacy of their voice as a brush and words that provide color and form.
Another way to interpret that phrase is the ability to help us hear something that changes the way we forever see the world.
Throughout most of my life, this largely happened via music. Gifted…
Last week, for the first time ever, we saw a picture of a black hole. In this primer of the experience, the New York Times described a black hole as a region in space that “swallows up everything too close, too slow or too small to fight its gravitational pull.” The edge of a black hole is marked by a ring of light, called the event horizon, represents light about to be drawn into the black hole “never to escape.” …
It stood almost ten feet tall and weighted close to a thousand pounds. We were less than four feet away, separated by two trainers and a steel fence. Feeling small in its presence, it was literally awesome.
While most of the onlookers were equally mesmerized watching the polar bear go through its training exercises, it was impossible not to notice the five-year-old girl who sat just in front of me.…
The opening of David Brooks new book, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life reads:
Every once in a while, I meet a person who radiates joy…They are kind, tranquil, delighted by small pleasures, and grateful for the large ones. These people are not perfect. They get exhausted and stressed. They make errors in judgment. But they live for others, not themselves. They’ve made unshakable commitments to family, a cause, a community or a faith.…
One of the best things about writing these weekly notes is the response I get from readers like you.
Some share a brief thumbs up or question, a related link or recommendation. Other share personal stories or reflections on their own.
All are so appreciated, so please keep them coming.
Among the emails I received recently were three that go to the heart of these Monday morning notes.…
Growing up I absolutely idolized Elvis Presley. His rock and roll greeted me after Friday Little League games as I walked into the bar where my mom worked. His movies kept me company on Saturday afternoons. His gospel music was my church on Sunday.
Why I was so drawn to him is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps it was his devotion to his mother – which I shared to my own. Or…
Hot dogs didn’t come to America until the 1860’s when a German immigrant began selling them off a cart in New York’s Bowery.
Apple pie came to America courtesy of England – via Geoffrey Chaucer’s recipe. But apples originated from Asia – which is also where fireworks were created.
Baseball, our national pastime, may actually trace its roots back to Egypt – where the first use of a bat and ball were discovered.…
Most people probably consider themselves open-minded. Especially considering the connotations with being the alternative.
Yet as I learned in reading David Epstein’s book, Range: Why Generalist Triumph in a Specialized World, open-minded isn’t simply a passive way of being but an active way of thinking. (The book refers to the work of psychologist Jonathan Baron who coined the term “active open-mindedness.”)
When given the choice, our natural inclination is to seek out information that confirms our own beliefs, expertise or intentions – rather than searching out information to that may challenge them.…
I read the New York Times and watch MSNBC because they reinforce my existing beliefs (confirmation bias).
I remember bad things done to me more than good things done for me (negativity bias).
I think that the country will ultimately be ok (optimism bias).
I didn’t think the poll results were accurate leading up to the midterms (pessimism bias).
I believe that if I flip a coin five times and get heads each time, the next flip will be tails (the gambler’s fallacy).…
My six year old daughter stepped off the bus with a very long face. “Daddy, you’re going to be so mad at me. I did something awful at school today.”
Embarrassed, upset and ashamed, it took twenty minutes for her to work through her tears and tell me that she got in trouble for talking in gym class. A crime that was punishable by sitting alone on the stage at the front of the gym. A…
In general, people believe that their own actions are more important than the environments in which they live. It’s a belief that’s so powerful its name is Fundamental Attribution Bias.
At the same time, the decision of where to live, work, go to school or raise our kids is among the most important and serious ones we will make in our lives.
If you’re curious to know how much where you live may impact your life, check out these two tools:
The first from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation uses CDC data to estimate life expectancy down to the census track level.…
Nine years ago novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave what remains one of the most viewed TED talks of all time. Her topic was the danger of a single story. The single story refers to a dominant narrative we tell about a group of people or a place. Using examples from her own life and in popular culture, the talk it is both comic and tragic, simple and profound.…
In the film First Reformed, a reverend and environmentalist are experiencing existential crises – each waging a battle between hope and despair. In one exchange, the environmentalist shares his conflicting feelings about being an expectant father yet having to answer for the catastrophic effects climate change will have on the earth his unborn daughter will inherit as an adult. He asks, “What will I say when she looks at me and asks – ‘You let this happen?’”…
Want to feel good? Read the definition of honor. It can be received, given, and felt deeply. It is about respect, reputation, reverence, and integrity. Most importantly it is about recognition.
Recognition not in the sense of receiving an award but in making sure we see and acknowledge what is important and good around us.
Yes we can recognize bravery in combat with the Congressional Medal of Honor but we can also honor our mothers by treating them with the utmost respect and living in a way that would bring honor to them.…
We stood eighty-five feet off the ground, walking a hundred feet across a slender 4-inch wide beam. My six-year old daughter inched step for step in front of me until, after what seemed an eternity, we reached the platform that ended our adventure.
This all took place at the world’s tallest indoor ropes challenge course. While we were tethered to a safety harness guaranteed to stop any fall, it did not allay my fears as much as one would think. A…
Imagine if the newspaper was only published once every fifty years. What would the major headlines be? What stories would we wake up to read?
According to Steven Pinker, author of Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress, it would be a positively delightful experience.
We would read about how extreme poverty has been halved, diseases such as polio and malaria almost entirely eradicated. It would tell us that we are living in the most peaceful time in the history of mankind and chronicle the incredible progress made in human rights for women, minorities and the LGBTQ community.…
Two of the most beloved family movies of all-time focus on a banker named George.
I’ll give you a moment to see if you can guess either or both.
The first, George Banks, works for Fidelity Fiduciary Bank in London. His job is securing investments from customers whose money can help build “railways through Africa, dams across the Nile, fleets of ocean greyhounds, majestic, self-amortizing canals, plantations of ripening tea.” …
Last week a friend shared a speech given by the late basketball coach Jimmy Valvano.
It wasn’t the “Never Give Up” speech he is most known for – where he literally got off his death bed to accept the ESPN Courage award and announce the formation of the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research.
It was a lesser-known talk given at a sales meeting several years earlier. In…
We like to think that our own beliefs and behavior are based on a rationale examination of the facts available to us.
Conversely, it is common to consider those whose beliefs and behaviors are different from ours irrational.
The reality is that none of us are rationale. Our mind is wired in such a way that we make decisions or judgments and then find the facts and figures to rationalize our position. Not…
A white man sees a black man walking quickly towards a woman at a bus stop. He senses a threat until he realizes the man’s little daughter at the bus stop is the cause for his rush. He feels ashamed of his bias – especially considering he also has a black daughter.
An African-American police officer is frustrated that he has to under go diversity training. …
A player takes a knee and is labeled unpatriotic. A fan burns his team’s jersey in protest and is called a racist. People, who had previously been united by a team, are now divided over an issue.
It is an indictment of our times, our media and our educational institutions that these two sides are pitted against one another, seemingly incapable of seeing, yet alone understanding the point of view of the other.…
“It begun in good faith by decent people out of fateful misunderstandings, American overconfidence and Cold War miscalculations.”
There is a lot to unpack from this statement in Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s new documentary, The Vietnam War.
While it was written to summarize the origins of one of the most divisive periods in our country’s history, it could just as easily be applied to other past and future conflicts.…
This is what my five-year-old daughter cheerfully said to me as we biked together on a quiet road on Cape Cod last week.
My initial reaction was to laugh at this comical “out of the mouths of babes” moment. Then I looked ahead of us both and watched my own mother, now well into her 70’s, also on a bike and thought the exact same thing.
Up until that day, I can’t say I had ever seen my mom on a bike. But…
| Growing up, I was told two different versions of who I was and who I could become. My stepfather instilled in me that I would never amount to anything. I was a lazy momma’s boy and she wouldn’t be around to protect me forever. He told me that going to college was a waste of money and time. Fortunately, my mom offered a powerful counter narrative. |
Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were the fiercest competitors but always respectful of each other’s talent and drive – whether in victory or defeat. By the end of their playing careers, they had become close friends.
Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have formed one of the most unique political friendships in our history. The foundation of which was laid, according to Bush, with how Clinton was humble after the 1988 election, “choosing not to lord his victory over Dad.”…
