Personal Development
The Splendid and the Vile
Once in a while a leader emerges, but only in retrospect do we understand their historical impact. Winston Churchill was that leader. Churchill was an odd man. He bathed twice daily, demanding that his bath water be at precisely the correct temperature. He worked while bathing, as secretaries took dictation...
Leading Beyond the Comfort Zone
Leading an organization is as much art as science; as much about culture as strategy. Many leaders excel in the science/strategy part of the equation. They keep tabs on their product lines and quarterly performance, and they become very good at strategic planning. Yet, the strongest leaders also understand that...
A Commitment to Place
Some years ago, I was invited to speak to a service organization in Storm Lake, Iowa. Prior to the engagement, I stopped into the local newspaper, The Storm Lake Times, to do an interview. I was interviewed by a young journalist named Tom, whom I later learned is the son...
Walking Home
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband;...
The Millennial Crisis
The young Soldiers I first counseled as an Army Chaplain are in their 40’s by now. In the early 2000’s, our discussions revolved around topics with a distinctive future trajectory. Things like marriage or divorce, children, whether to stay in the Army or return to civilian life. Undoubtedly, the future...
The Nun and the Boy
She referred to him as a mystic; some of his teachers thought he was day-dreaming. She told him he was a good writer; his rhetoric instructor nearly failed him. She noted the details of the boy’s photographs that I had missed; as she, too, was from another world. Mystics see...
Conversations With Leaders: Anderson Sainci
If you recall, Anderson Sainci, C’10 & MAC ’12, published a guest post on this blog titled An Approach To Servant Leadership. An ode to his Mother, who taught him lessons of love and leadership.I was excited to invite him back for a podcast interview that turned into a wonderful...
Getting Invited To Dinner
"God, who gets invited to dinner at your place? How do we get on your guest list?" “Walk straight, act right, tell the truth. Don’t hurt your friend, don’t blame your neighbor; despise the despicable. Keep your word, even when it costs you, make an honest living, never take a...
Reflecting On Time
After the birth of my son, my view of time was transformed. My son was born a healthy, happy baby, or so we thought at the time. We learned that he was born with a very rare genetic disorder called Hutchinson-Guilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS), often referred to as “Progeria”, for...
Strengthening Reckless Minds
Mark Lilla’s The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics is a cautionary study for all of us. Rather than an indictment of intellectuals in politics, he is more broadly examining how some of the most well-recognized philosophers of the 20th century—the smartest people on earth—so egregiously misjudged the ideological ramifications of...
