Posts by D C

My wife and I managed to miss the cold snap last week by being in New Mexico for both work and play. New Mexico is one of our favorite places to visit, its beauty on display from every direction. What I hadn’t anticipated was how much of our stay would have me confronted by national…

Let’s begin with a strange question. Who among all the people living now will be remembered in a thousand years? We might assume that anyone from our era who will be remembered in 3025 must have been famous in his or her lifetime. Do we think that current political leaders, here or elsewhere in the…

Of all the continents, none has had a more troubling history than Africa. In Joseph Conrad’s masterpiece Heart of Darkness, Conrad sifts the metaphor of darkness from the African peoples to the Europeans who enslaved millions from West Central Africa and then divided up the entire continent into European colonies. It is only since the…

In the writing workshops I offer, I like to talk about mud. When I do, I often see a puzzled expression on the faces of participants, but there is a connection between mud and writing. My workshops are for people who have an idea for a book, fiction or non-fiction, but who want some advice…

There is a moment in the life of the prophet Jeremiah that would make a great scene in a movie. Picture an assembly of royal officials along with a king listening to a message that Jeremiah claimed was sent from God. The message was a warning of disaster coming unless the people changed their sinful…

In an article I recently read, Michael Jordan makes an observation about basketball in the modern era that caught my attention. Despite his own proficiency, Jordan suggested that the three-point shot has had a negative effect on the game. People my age can remember basketball before the three-point shot was created. When all shots counted…

During the Cold War, we referred to Eastern European nations under Moscow’s control as the Soviet Bloc. The term “bloc” suggests frozenness—a perfect description of life in those sad countries. Those countries weren’t part of the bloc by choice; they were controlled and dominated by the Kremlin. I will never forget my own brief encounter…

It seems fitting that two men whom I admire passed away so close together last week. One was one hundred years old; the other was just short of his ninety-fifth birthday. It wasn’t their age that made them special—it was the way they lived. A few decades ago, a popular term in leadership studies was…

The winter holidays including New Year celebrations are days steeped in traditions, traditions that hold together memories of the past and hopes for the future. It isn’t really Christmas for my wife until she makes the traditional Swedish Christmas cookies that her grandmothers and their grandmothers made. Part of my wife’s joy is anticipating the…

Whether you pray often or not at all, your first response to the question, “Does Everyone Pray?” might be “no.” If we think of prayer as thinking or saying certain words to a Divine Being, I would agree that not everyone offers that kind of prayer. But there are two dimensions to prayer, with our…