“Prove yourself brave, truthful, and unselfish, and someday you will be a real boy.” ~ The Blue Fairy I’ve been thinking about Pinocchio a lot lately. Not just the lie detecting growing nose part of the story, although I can’t help thinking how handy it would be if the deceitful[Read More…]

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who watches the watchers?)” ~ Juvenal, Satire VI It must be that time of year again. Sunshine Week — the annual reminder of why open government matters — isn’t officially on the calendar until March, but sometimes the reminder needs to be made a wee bit[Read More…]

“Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal..” ~ Robert A. Heinlein The human being is capable of justifying the commission of tremendous evil and wrongdoing if provided sufficient time and mental gymnastics. Unlike animals, the human has been burdened with this annoying thing we call a[Read More…]

“How people treat other people is a direct reflection of how they feel about themselves.” ~ Paulo Coelho Have you ever been in a public place and watched someone mistreat a clerk, a server, or a complete stranger? The instinctive reaction is often the same: protect the person being targeted[Read More…]

“There’s always failure. And there’s always disappointment. And there’s always loss. But the secret is learning from the loss, and realizing that none of those holes are vacuums.” ~ Michael J. Fox No one warns you that adulting will be filled with that same sense of sadness you have as a[Read More…]

“You have been offered ‘the gift of crisis’. As Kathleen Norris reminds us, the Greek root of the word crisis is ‘to sift’, as in, to shake out the excesses and leave only what’s important. That’s what crises do. They shake things up until we are forced to hold on[Read More…]

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” ~ William Shakespeare I had a minor epiphany a few weeks ago. A friend invited me to a “solstice sound bath” at the pool, so I dug out what I hoped passed for appropriate attire and went[Read More…]

“May your troubles be less and your blessings be more, and nothing but happiness come through your door.” ~ Irish Blessing By the time you’re reading this we’ll be in that weird liminal space between Christmas and New Year’s where you can’t remember what day it is or the last[Read More…]

“‘There are some upon this earth of yours,’ returned the Spirit, ‘who claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us, and all our kith and kin, as if they had[Read More…]

“In fact, now I come to think of it, do we decide questions, at all? We decide answers, no doubt: but surely the questions decide us?  It is the dog, you know, that wags the tail—not the tail that wags the dog.” ~ Lewis Carroll A few weeks back I[Read More…]

“I truly believe that dragging Jesus Christ into partisan politics is a grave mistake. It will do Jesus no good at all to be seen in the company of politicians — apt to ruin his reputation, if you ask me.” ~ Molly Ivins, Columnist It’s concerning that there’s a movement afoot[Read More…]

“Trade your expectations for appreciation and the world changes for you.” – Tony Robbins By the time you’re reading this, you’ll either be prepping for Thanksgiving or cleaning up and noshing on leftovers. Hopefully either way, you’ll be filled with joy and peace and have a wonderful holiday. But some[Read More…]