75 Years After the Big Bomb Yesterday seventy-five years ago the world changed for the worse when we – us the “good guys” — dropped an atom bomb on 340,000 people in Hiroshima. Within the next couple of months 140,000 of them died. 70,000 immediately in the blast, the rest in agony from injuries and… Continue reading The Great Shame
Crazy Wonderland roadmap
The pandemic has set us all in a place where we feel our own mortality a bit better than we used to. It might also be a good time to ponder some of those things coming up in the news. The level of negativity in our world is intense. I’m sure you’ll agree to that.… Continue reading Crazy Wonderland roadmap
Who gets to design your “new normal?”
This is the monster question coming out of the pandemic. Everyone acknowledges that things won’t, and shouldn’t, go back to the old normal. How many are waiting with baited breath to see what the new normal will be? And how many are helping to form it? Those who are ready to take action to make… Continue reading Who gets to design your “new normal?”
Race. Gender. Empire and a Future
About Yes Magazine Yesterday I watched a pretty astounding webinar from Yes! Magazine, “The Pandemic Portal, How This Moment Changes Everything”. If you’re not familiar with Yes! this is your introduction to a world of pragmatic hope based on purposeful action. Please check them out at the link above. The webinar really was astounding. I… Continue reading Race. Gender. Empire and a Future
Community Defends Humanity (and vise versa)
We humans are looking for transcendent gems of wisdom and power that can guide us beyond the morass we’re caught up in to a place we can barely imagine at this moment. What guru knows the secret we’re grasping for? The problems are so complex and the powers so entrenched it seems hopeless. Here’s something… Continue reading Community Defends Humanity (and vise versa)
Schoolyard magic instills hope for kids
What a tough time to be a kid right now. Every young person I talk to seems to carry an emotional weight that’s new since covid. Climate change was getting to be very heavy among the youth aware of it, but it was still possible to ignore if you really wanted to. And lots of… Continue reading Schoolyard magic instills hope for kids
Weaving peace by building infrastructure for it
This morning in Quaker Meeting a Friend told this story that gave me a little space to breath hope. My Friend grew up in the deep south of Arkansas. It was a small town then, with only 3 doctors – all white. When she was a child in the 1980’s she remembers the doctor’s offices… Continue reading Weaving peace by building infrastructure for it
Ozark Uplift Is Our Geological Grounding to Get Through This
https://www.facebook.com/groups/338007737189521 Northwest Arkansas sits on a big, ancient piece of rock called the Ozark Uplift. Our mountains are made of it. Right now we need that solid grounding more than ever as we breath our way through covid times. It’s not fun being a covid hotspot. Don’t be ashamed to admit it’s scary, because it’s… Continue reading Ozark Uplift Is Our Geological Grounding to Get Through This
The Social Contract Breached
Got some good response from a newsletter post last week, so I’m including it here to memorialize the death of George Floyd and those Black folks who died before him. And to emphasize the way authoritarian systems abuse their power to hold on to it. Violence has to be the default technique for problem solving.… Continue reading The Social Contract Breached
Networks and power: Baptists take over the South with a network strategy
Here’s an interesting example of a network strategy at work in history. It was identified by Jacob Huneycutt, an Arkansan studying history at the University of Arkansas. He reported his findings last year in this paper, “A Spirituall Kindome: The Importance of the Particular Baptists’ Transatlantic Network of Voluntary Interdependence and Cooperation to the Success… Continue reading Networks and power: Baptists take over the South with a network strategy