With my practicing singing the national anthem and my guests who are experts in abolition, I keep researching the colonies and early United States. Not my goal, but I noticed how often the American Founding Fathers kept showing up in Europe. Here’s Benjamin Franklin in Paris: I could have posted about Jefferson, John Adams, or, for all I know, many non-famous colonists and early Americans visiting Europe and the Caribbean.[…] Keep reading →

I learned more from the Cadets at West Point than they could possibly have learned from me, but retired General Lloyd Austin III invited me there to co-lead workshops on leadership My mentor Frances Hesselbein introduced us. As I type, the Senate is holding hearings on his nomination to Secretary of Defense. I wrote an Inc. story on the experience, “6 Lessons I Learned Teaching Leadership With a 4-Star General[…] Keep reading →

Someone asked about getting rid of stuff. What’s the point? Why not just avoid getting attached to it? I responded. . . Avoiding acquiring things in the first place is the point for me in Things I already possess I may keep using until they wear out or get rid of. Deciding what to get rid of forces me to consider and act on my values, which improves my life.[…] Keep reading →

I was asked about getting rid of things to free one’s life. I own way too many things, but fewer than I used to—a lot fewer, so I think I can talk about it. I don’t think I shared here my experience with my marathon medals. I kept them after many rounds of getting rid of books, clothes, etc. Eventually I realized I was ready to get rid of them[…] Keep reading →

Corporations and governments are pledging to lower emissions, maybe to net zero (What “net zero” and “closed loop” mean.), by 2030 or 2050. Nearly everyone recognizes goals past the pledgers’ retirement close to meaningless. What will give them meaning is not hope or appreciation, but accountability, especially imposed from without. Even with accountability, these pledges could set earlier targets. We all know they can. The tragic message from everyone except,[…] Keep reading →

A few months ago, maybe a year, my phone stopped reading the memory card. It couldn’t access the 16 gigabytes on it, including all my saved music, pictures, videos, and several apps. I kept putting off getting it fixed until earlier this month, when I brought it to a repair shop. In the meantime, I found myself preferring without the memory. When bored, instead of music, I paid attention to[…] Keep reading →

As Rob Harper asked in the YouTube page: Can only white people be racist? Can black people be racist? What do you think when you see the police? What exactly is white privilege? Can blacks be privileged? Do all lives matter or just some and whose black lives? As Rob and I speak more (here is his appearance on my podcast and my appearance on his, among many other recordings[…] Keep reading →