By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on October 12, 2023
In 2020, I took a rejuvenating three-month sabbatical. I was expecting profound insights to emerge over the course of this time, but at the end of my sabbatical, all I had were three simple thoughts to carry forward: 1.) Do whatever it takes to get enough sleep. 2.) Do one thing at a time, instead…
By: Tonette Kellett on October 12, 2023
In the book, Rare Leadership: 4 Uncommon Habits for Increasing Trust, Joy, and Engagement in the People You Lead, the co-authors Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder collaborate to write about maturity in leadership. [1] They have come up with the acronym R.A.R.E. to denote the four habits that will cause your emotional intelligence to “soar”,…
By: Todd E Henley on October 12, 2023
The spring of 1978 my 6th grade class was preparing for graduation by rehearsing the song, “The Greatest Love of All”1 Every time we sang it, there was one line we nearly screamed at the top of our lungs, “No matter what they take from me. They can’t take away my dignity” This was because…
By: Becca Hald on October 12, 2023
Have you heard the song Give Me Your Eyes by Brandon Heath? The chorus sticks with me. Give me Your eyes for just one second Give me Your eyes so I can see Everything that I keep missin’ Give me Your love for humanity Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted The ones that are…
By: Mathieu Yuill on October 12, 2023
In my city, the stark divisions between neighborhoods are more than just geographical boundaries; they are metaphorical objects that separate communities with contrasting realities. These divisions are often represented by elements such as train tracks, specific streets, or even a park, and they bring to light severe income disparities and, at times, ethno-racial differences. It’s…
By: Russell Chun on October 11, 2023
אין שלום במזרח התיכון – No Peace in the Middle East – Hebrew Introduction – The End of History, Identity Part 1 – We the people, Chapter 12 Part 2 – Russian and Ukrainian Identity Part 3 – The End of the Story, Just War, The Spirit in Ukraine Moves Introduction The End of…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on October 11, 2023
Identity is defined as “the distinguishing character or personality of an individual”(1) I read it a couple of times so that I could let it sink in. I then tried to find a single, only one, distinguishing character that makes me ‘me”! I could not. I am so many things, a beautiful and complex combination…
By: David Beavis on October 11, 2023
Not long after the invasion of Ukraine, Philip Bump of The Washington Post wrote about the isolation – both figurative and literal – of Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. This article included pictures of Putin physically separated from people by an awkward distance that would make dialogue difficult and relational connection impossible.[1] What these pictures…
By: Pam Lau on October 11, 2023
“It’s not what we see that should upset us, but the large things we cannot see that should concern us.”[1] These words were spoken by Dr. Martyn Percy during his first few minutes with us at Oxford University on Saturday morning. As I wrote these words in my journal, a forgotten memory slowly emerged. Just a…
By: Kristy Newport on October 11, 2023
In Rare Leadership: 4 Uncommon Habits for Increasing Trust, Joy, and Engagement in the People You Lead by Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder, they share how fast track thinking impacts leaders and building RARE leadership practices. In chapter 10 the authors propose different practices which will help a leader endure hardship well, one being the…
By: Cathy Glei on October 10, 2023
Each year, when our school district returns from summer vacation the staff are presented with a new inspirational focus, or buzz word, to frame our collaborative work. It is a method for framing our thinking around our collective mission and pursuits. This year, when we returned to begin the 2023-24 school year, we were presented…
By: Laura Fleetwood on October 10, 2023
According to Dr. Jason Clark, 15,000 new books are published every year with the word leadership in the title. [1] Of these, many will not stand the test of time, yet it is clear that the world is obsessed with the topic of leadership. It’s easy to imagine why, since we daily read articles of…
By: Kim Sanford on October 9, 2023
“If we do not agree on a minimal common culture, we cannot cooperate on shared tasks and will not regard the same institutions as legitimate; indeed, we will not even be able to communicate with one another absent a common language with mutually understood meanings.” [1] In his book Identity: The Demand for Dignity and…
By: Tim Clark on October 9, 2023
In 1989 the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama famously announced the soon-coming conclusion of history in his essay titled “The End of History?”, and this idea picked-up steam with his 1992 book “The End of History and the Last Man.” By the ‘end of history’, Fukuyama meant that due to the increasing ubiquity of liberal…
By: Kally Elliott on October 9, 2023
Murray Bowen’s Family System Theory tells us that when a change is made in one part of a system a compensatory change in another part of the system will follow. [1] The Family System Theory can be applied to non-family groups such as businesses, organizations, communities and large societies.[2] This week we read, Francis Fukuyama’s…
By: Jenny Dooley on October 9, 2023
Since returning to the United States in 2014, I have been confused by the political and social climate. The reverse culture shock of returning home where everyone is clamoring to be heard, no one is listening, and sides must be taken has been difficult to navigate. After decades of embracing collectivistic cultures in which the…
By: Becca Hald on October 9, 2023
Sitting through the election coverage in 2016 was difficult for me. My daughter was fourteen at the time and she watched the coverage with a friend of hers. It was heartbreaking to see these two young women follow the election coverage. As we watched the news, they moved from hope at the prospect of a…
By: Esther Edwards on October 9, 2023
Our little German community, nestled in the rural countryside of the Garden State of New Jersey, was a haven of community and faith. The German culture was alive and well as we enjoyed German food (meat and potatoes were a staple!), weekly German church gatherings, conversations of adults regarding “the good old days” in Germany,…
By: Jennifer Vernam on October 9, 2023
I am surprised at how cathartic the topics of the last two weeks have been for me. As we read Bebbington and Clark’s thoughts on Evangelicalism and its impacts on society as well as Fukuyama’s analysis of our move towards a more identity-obsessed culture, I am finding myself better able to articulate what had been…
By: Tonette Kellett on October 9, 2023
Francis Fukuyama’s book, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, was an interesting read for me this past week. It helped make sense for me some of the things going on in our societies today politically both here in the United States and elsewhere overseas. For instance, the hyper-focus of our politicians…
