• Pope Francis shakes up the church

    Pope Francis is shaking up the church, it seems. High time. In this struggle between religious conservatives and religious liberals we can see the same struggle that is playing out in secular culture. It is a very human thing to be torn between rules and principles, between obedience and conscience, between definition and exploration. Like…

  • Michael Ventura – What you believe in your bones

    I find particularly compelling these lines: “I was green, but had enough sense to know that opinion is not belief and that it can be hard to learn what you believe. Not what you want to believe, or think you believe, or feel you’re supposed to believe, but what, in your bones, you really believe…

  • Is autism actually a step forward?

    My friend Keliu Lindelien (author of Gift from my Son) said to me years ago that she thought that perhaps autism was suppression of left-brain functioning. It causes problems — to put it mildly! But perhaps more is going on here than physical malfunctioning, with or without environmental insults such as adulterated foods, electromagnetic pollution,…

  • You need more downtime than you think

    Came across this article from Scientific American via SchwartzReport, and decided to post it even before reading it. You need more downtime than you think Research on naps, meditation and the habits of exceptional people reveals how mental breaks increase productivity By Ferris Jabr www.salon.com/2013/10/16/your_brain_needs_more_downtime_than_it_thinks_partner/

  • Grounding

    Watch this film. I say no more. An hour and a half, but — watch this film ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgwF0tpioTU&feature=youtu.be  

  • The Sorrows of Empire

    This came to me yesterday, and I thought I’d share it. The sorrows of empire We bomb their cities; we kill their men, women and children with drones, missiles, napalm, personal attacks, landmines and anything else we can find; we overthrow their governments, take sides in their civil wars, and still the ungrateful bastards refuse…

  • Is this how sleep knits the raveled sleeve of care?

    This little bit of scientific speculation has widespread implications in a sleep-deprived society. http://www.swansonvitamins.com/ru-articles/memory-brain-support/sleep-helps-detoxify-the-brain.html?SourceCode=INTHIR549&mobile=off&emv_mid=2075267&emv_rid=15110337636

  • Kennedy’s Vision (1) — Civil Rights

    Kennedy’s Vision It was the worst day in American history. For almost three years, we had had a man with a unique historical perspective, with an independent place to stand,  in a position to make real changes. We stood at the crossroads of two very different paths, and he knew where he wanted to take…

  • Kennedy’s Vision (2) The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

    John F. Kennedy knew that in his time we stood at a crossroads. He knew where he wanted us to go, and he knew some of the steps to take, and he knew how to lead so that the people would follow. And then – and therefore – he was murdered, in cold blood, in…

  • Kennedy’s Vision (3) The Third World

    In the 1950s and 1960s, people divided the world into the industrially developed West, the Communist bloc, and the non-Western countries, including many recently freed European colonies — respectively, the First, Second and Third Worlds. In practice, use of the terms First World and Second World soon disappeared, but Third World persisted until it was…