Sooner or later you make a choice. Do you think you’re the center of the world, or can you give those around you the benefit of the doubt, imagine sympathetically the challenges they may face, and emphasize and identify with them rather than see them as opponents or obstacles? I know that sounds like an easy choice, but as David Foster Wallace says, we are faced with this choice on numerous occasion nearly every day of our lives, and all too often we settle for the default setting where we assume our challenges are greater than those faced by others, our frustrations more valid and vexing, our excuses more understandable, our priorities...

Ever try to limit yourself to just three words when you try to describe something special: a wonderful meal? a great movie? a favorite book? It can be really, really challenging. But at other times, on rare occasions, it’s incredibly easy. That’s the case with this TED Talk by Hyeonseo Lee as she talks about her escape from North Korea and subsequent life as a refugee and, eventually, activist. Three words: courageous, compelling, and (especially in light of our recent discussions) beautiful. I’ll say no more, except that to watch this video is to gain an appreciation for freedom, courage, and the human spirit. Note: If you are...

I thought this short video was a perfect counter point to, or maybe extension, of yesterday’s post – and comments! – about beauty. Chris Heuertz has spent his life working with the poorest of the poor and, most recently, working with children, women, and men who have been caught up in and abused by human trafficking. You can read more about him and his work at Word Made Flesh and on his blog – great title, btw – If I Blogged…. But he’s not just about advocacy or even help. He’s mostly about community, about living with and helping people fashion resilient communities that have weathered the difficult moments that any real...

With Earth Day in mind, I’m going to suggest you find the time to watch Bill Gates’ TED Talk about why he’s backing – and investing heavily in – a new kind of energy technology that has phenomenal potential to change, well, just about everything about the energy conversation. The challenges we face, as Gates describes, are monumental. But so also is the creativity and commitment of some of the folks leading the charge to find solutions to our problems. If you’ve seen Bill Gates give earlier presentations, it’s kind of neat to see his growth in terms of his confidence, his use of illustrations and data, and his ability to engage...

I wasn’t sure where to put Shane Koyczan’s TED Talk performance of his spoken-word poem “To This Day.” It’s about bullying, and the lasting impact that the harsh words children speak to each other can have. That’s something I experienced as a kid, both as a receiver and giver. And both – being called names and calling others name – shape some of the memories of my youth I would most like to forget. So perhaps, I thought, I should put it under “parenting,” inviting parents and all those who care for children to take these taunts and slanders more seriously so that we may children our to honor each other and to be resilient...

Lent is a time of self-denial, a chance to remember and identify with the sufferings of our Lord. It is also an opportunity to make do with less and in this way to identify also with all those who have so little, those with whom our Lord identified. That gets increasingly more difficult – and simultaneously more important – in a word that seems to grow more materialistic by the day. It is challenging to watch the ads of television and across the media and not succumb to believing that we just can’t get buy without that new ______________ (fill in the blank). In this light, Lent and its call to self-denial is a gift, an opportunity to...

One of the first questions I ask when I think about donating to a particular charity is what their overhead is – that is, how much money the spend on personnel and marketing and everything else it takes to administer their relief efforts. This kind of information is readily available and I use it to determine a sense of the charity’s efficiency – the lower the overhead, the more money goes directly to the recipients of the aid I and others give. Of course I assume the reverse is true as well: the higher the overhead the more wasteful the charity is and less deserving of my support. In this provocative TED Talk based on his book...

Kid President has taken the nation by storm. His “pep talk” has had more than 10 million views in the last month and many of his other videos – all designed, as he says, to make grown-ups less boring and the world a better place – have had a wide viewing. But who is Kid President? Turns out, it’s an eight year old boy by the name of Rob. Actually, he goes by Robbie (and not “the Robster,” as you’ll discover). (His last name has been withheld…by his mom.) The other guy behind Kid President is the videographer, producer, and friend, Brad. (I’m not sure who’s withholding Brad’s last name!) But it’s more...

My very favorite element of the internet is the ability to share inspirational stories with others, and especially inspirational videos. I use that word “inspirational” with some trepidation. Often what’s labeled “inspirational” in our culture moves in the direction of sappy, happy, and Hallmarky (I know that’s not a word but you know what I mean). But I mean inspirational in the old-fashioned sense of where the word came from. “Inspiration,” like “respiration,” has to do with breathing, with breath. In fact, “in-spire” literally means “to breathe into.” And breath, of course, is connected to life. Hence, to...

This seemed like a perfect Monday post, especially the first Monday of the New Year. Moreover, I’ve decided to start a new category for the New Year, named simply “Good!” and placed in the Living Well section. Why? Because I think it’s so incredibly easy to feel somewhat overwhelmed by all the bad news that surrounds us – on the television or internet, at work or in the community, maybe even at home. In fact, sometimes it feels like is about all the gets featured in the media and we get so used to it that we don’t even notice how it’s sucking our energy and diminishing our vision. And so from time to time, when I come...