I am inspired by chrysalis, the process of caterpillars becoming butterflies. We witness disintegration, creation and invention. Transformation requires hope, vision, action and patience. I think of chrysalis as the auto workers strike for a seat at the table ...

Some adventure thrills us while too much risk terrifies. How do we balance our need for security with a hunger for adventure?  Our daughter gave me a gift with the words “You can’t steal second base while keeping one foot on first.”  The baseball analogy helps ...

I’m offended when comedians and rock stars say “If you remember the sixties, you really weren’t there” as if drugs defined the Vietnam generation. It’s personal for me and more. In 1960 I volunteered in JFK’s presidential campaign and spent the mid-sixties in ...

Excellent leadership requires as much self-consciousness as confidence. Omar Bradley’s advice to “set your course by the stars, not the lights of passing ships” reminds me  “True north is the internal compass that guides you successfully through life. It ...

Thomas Merton wrote “The white man, says Lauren Van Der Post came into Africa (and Asia and America for that matter) like a one-eyed giant, bringing with him the characteristic split and blindness which were at once his strength and torment and ruin… The ...

Growing up in a progressive white family I developed a commitment to social and economic justice yet missed the breadth and depth of my own caste privileges. As a New Yorker witnessing the Civil Rights Movement on television I believed segregation and racism ...

Walking into any woods I clear my mind, refresh my soul and emerge more focused. In Japan they call this forest bathing. I reflected on this concept while watching a new film, An Above Average Day, about two local men who’ve climbed 400 mountains. Ray O’Conor ...

New York is union strong. The quality of the building trades union work comes from their classroom and on-the-job paid training of apprentices. Think of the teachers educating our children, healthcare professionals caring for all of us; police, firefighters ...