So I’ve been watching “Empire” on Fox. Not in real time, but on Hulu. And I’ve got to admit. So far it’s been a pleasure. A guilty pleasure, but a pleasure nonetheless. There are lots of story lines woven throughout the show. One of them has to do with a father’s unwillingness (inability?) to accept […]
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Lead like the great conductors
As a musician I believe that music is a great teacher. The lessons that musicians are able to learn through music, if they’re willing to learn them, go far beyond the mechanics of playing any particular instrument. In this, one of my favorite TED Talks, Israeli conductor, Itay Talgam, studies the conducting styles of several […]
Learning joy
I recently attended a conference and found myself sitting next to someone. We instantly hit it off. During our time together he made a comment about how he had learned to find and experience joy. At first glance joy seems like something that we don’t have to learn. It seems like something that just washes […]
Open questions
Here’s my bias: I think it’s good to be open. I think that openness is a fundamental posture that human beings can assume to matters of ultimate concern. We can and should have open eyes, open minds, open hearts, open arms, open homes, and open doors. Being open is better than being closed– always and […]
Living questions
Questions, not answers, are the key to uncovering life’s truest meanings and purposes. We need to learn how to ask great questions. We need to become comfortable living with not-yet-answered questions. We need to reframe the idea for any given question there is necessarily “an answer.” How to ask great questions. Great questions bubble up within […]
Indignation
I just finished Indignation by Philip Roth. It was a quick but unsettling read. Set in the early 1950’s it tells the story of a young Jewish man from New Jersey who, fleeing his overbearing father, ends up at a small college in Ohio. Set against the backdrop of the Korean War, the story chronicles […]