Consider

“With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you are connected to the sea.” – Silvia Earle Six years ago, my daughter Michelle and I, went to St. Croix with some friends exploring doing eco-humanitarian work on this poverty ridden and Lionfish decimated island. She went back shortly after we returned home and has been there ever since. Michelle has such a deep love and respect for…

“If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger.” – Muriel Rukeyser "In the Opinion Pages of the New York Times on July 20, 2014, seven poets were asked to respond to the question, "Does poetry matter?" Perhaps no other art form is asked to defend its value, impact, relevance, and existence as often as…

“Books give a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” – Plato   These three themes below, I have come to see as very interrelated. They are related in terms of containing ideas and impulses that need to be examined, felt deeply, apologized for and reconciled with as well as ideas and impulses that hold the promise of a better day…

“Being American is more than a pride we inherit; it's the past we step into and how we repair it.” – Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb     I've asked a number of friends or relatives if they watched the 2021 presidential inauguration. Most didn't and still haven't. I think this is unfortunate. I am a registered Republican so that I can vote in the Republican primaries. Otherwise I…

“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.” – Mortimer J. Adler     So many good books and so little time. Here’s four new books from past ThinkAgain-FaithAgain presenters that are worth reading soon:     Finding Mother God: Poems to Heal the World | Carol Lynn Pearson Carol Lynn’s new book of poetry … is incredibly moving — Carol Lynn found a way to somehow…

"We need more than civility, empathy, and good will. We need courage." -Braver Angels We need the courage, curiosity, and humility to talk to those different than us. Those who may even feel like our enemies. Especially now that the election is over and a new administration begins, we need to listen to those who lost as well as those who won. We need to listen to what matters to…

"Perhaps the Mormon experience—which was in its initial phase a protest against the world of harsh capitalist individualism, but then through much of the twenty century became an increasingly adaptation to that world which it originally rejected—perhaps that experience could give food for thought, not only for Mormons, but for all of us who live in this nation. Mormons often criticize the larger society in which they live and contrast…

"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him. Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets." -3 Nephi 14: 11,12 I was reading these passages the other day…

“I personally commit and ask all leaders—elected officials, business executives, media personalities, and civic and faith leaders, and others—to promote peace and patience as election tensions grow. We call upon you to speak out explicitly against violence and threats of violence that undermine our American ideals and aspirations. America is bigger than any single election.” -Condemn Election Violence Petition My friend, Joan Blades, cofounder of MoveOn.org and Living Room Conversations…

“We the undersigned will work separately for what each of us believes is right, but we will also work together to protect the land we all love — to lift up American citizenship and the American promise in a time of peril and to find in ourselves the understanding that our differences don’t simply divide us, but also can strengthen and complete us.” -Braver Angels Citizen Letter   Two former…