Relationships Among U.S. Presidents
The Futility Closet notes, James Madison was the half first cousin twice removed of George Washington. Zachary Taylor was the second cousin of James Madison. Grover Cleveland was the sixth cousin once removed of Ulysses S. Grant. Theodore Roosevelt was the third cousin twice removed of Martin Van Buren. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the fourth […]
The Heart of Compassion
Buddhist writer and environmental activist Marc Ian Barasch writes in Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness: At its root meaning of “to suffer with,” compassion challenges our tendency to flinch away from life’s too-tender parts. I know this much: when I acknowledge my own pain, I am much […]
Nothing Doing
From Sam Loyd’s Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles, Tricks, and Conundrums (1914,) “You can’t stand for five minutes without moving, if you are blindfolded.” “You can’t stand at the side of a room with both your feet lengthwise touching the wainscoting.” “You can’t get out of a chair without bending your body forward, or putting your […]
How to Find Success
In All In: Driven by Passion, Energy, and Purpose (2020,) Porter Moser, head coach of the Loyola University Chicago men’s basketball team, on how to find success: How you think is how you feel, how you feel is how you act, and how you act is what defines you. I believe completely in the progression […]
Listen Without Judgement or Agenda
Buddhist teacher and leading voice in end-of-life care activist Frank Ostaseski writes “On What to Do When the Going Gets Rough” from the Tricycle magazine (Summer 2001,) This is maybe the greatest gift we can give another human being—our undivided attention. To listen without judgement or agendas. The great psychologist Carl Rogers once described empathy […]
Solo Travel Opens the Door for Experiences and Encounters
Solo trips are journeys of discovery, both inward and outward, writes Shauna Niequist in Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life (2007,) When you’re (traveling) with someone else, you share each discovery, but when you are alone, you have to carry each experience with you like a secret, something you have to write […]
Role Models and Diversity
Companies are under increasing pressure to include more women on their governing boards. Although boardroom diversity is increasing, women remain underrepresented, and progress is slow. The Bartleby column in the Economist reminds that role models are one of the most fundamental ways to manage these barriers: Having women at the top of organisations may inspire […]
10 Asian Destinations for Solo Travellers
In the SilverKris Magazine of Singapore Airlines, Jessica Farah lists some destinations you must consider for solo trips: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam … for The French colonial architecture Siem Reap, Cambodia … for seeing the sunrise over Angkor Wat Ahmedabad, India … for there is always a festival of some sort Yangon, Myanmar … […]
Why We Need Stories
Author Robert Stone in an interview with The Paris Review. We need stories. We can’t identify ourselves without them. We’re always telling ourselves stories about who we are: That’s what history is, what the idea of a nation or an individual is. The purpose of fiction is to help us answer the question we must […]
Chewing on Others’ Thoughts
In the words of Ivan Petrovich Voynitsky (“Uncle Vanya,”) Anton Chekhov writes in Uncle Vanya (1898,) But I’ll tell you something; the man has been writing on art for twenty-five years, and he doesn’t know the very first thing about it. For twenty-five years he has been chewing on other men’s thoughts about realism, naturalism, […]