Teaching to Transgress: bell hooks on Education
"My hope emerges from those places of struggle where I witness individuals positively transforming their lives and the world around them. Educating is always a vocation rooted in hopefulness. As teachers we believe that learning is possible, that nothing can keep an open mind from seeking after knowledge and finding a way to know." This piece explores bell hooks' inspiring perspectives on educatio... posted on Aug 24 2020, 3,613 reads

The Waters of Heterodoxy
"In The Fourth Phase of Water, Gerald Pollack [an award-winning and highly acclaimed professor) offers an elegant new theory of water chemistry that has profound implications not only for chemistry and biology, but for the metaphoric foundation of our understanding of reality and our treatment of nature.[...] The Fourth Phase of Water contributes to a much larger paradigm shift that is proceeding ... posted on Aug 23 2020, 7,477 reads

Expanding the Spirit of Democracy
"How might we unlock hope in an expansive spirit of democracy for present and future generations in this time of upheaval? As the underside of American society is being revealed and the stark inequities and racial prejudices made manifest, we are called to reflect on what brought us to this disturbing state of affairs. With shock and recrimination we are responding to the truth of our history and ... posted on Aug 22 2020, 2,946 reads

The Phone Call
In 1992 Auburn Sandstrom was 29, the mother of a three-year-old son, caught in an abusive marriage and an addict. One night she hit rock bottom. She was writhing in pain on the floor of her filthy apartment wrestling with withdrawal from a drug she had been addicted to for several years. In her hand, she gripped a ragged piece of paper with a phone number of a counselor her mother had mailed to he... posted on Aug 21 2020, 6,903 reads

Square Peg Foundation: Putting Human Dignity First
"So the question comes up why horses? Here's the thing-- a horse never sees potential in any one. A horse sees you for exactly who you are and a horse offers you the dignity of that. The dignity to be scared, the dignity to be dis-regulated, the dignity to be curious, or kind, or excited.The dignity to just be you...Square Peg was dreamed up by a young mother with a child that needed to move and t... posted on Aug 20 2020, 6,646 reads

BLM: Four Lessons in White Allyship from South Africa
"As Black Lives Matter protests, triggered by the killing of George Floyd, spread across the world in response to systemic racism and police brutality, questions are being asked about how white people can lend their support. Our previous and ongoing research into the South African anti-apartheid movement provides four key lessons we can draw on today in the fight against racism."... posted on Aug 19 2020, 6,960 reads

A Man Impossible to Classify
The young man walked up to us still smiling and, without a word, pointed again. I stared in puzzlement. At this he nodded his head and, to clarify matters, repeated the pointing. "What do you mean?" I managed to ask. "Donuts!" He said. "Do you guys like donuts?" It was 1965. He was one of the first people I met in San Francisco, a street person, and the story that followed spanned some twenty year... posted on Aug 18 2020, 3,812 reads

Taiji Quan: The Wisdom of Water
"All natural things curl, swirl, twist, and flow in patterns like flowing water. Thus we sense something similar in clouds, smoke, streams, the wind-blown waves of sand on the beach, the pattern of branches against the sky, the shape of summer grasses, the markings on rocks, the movement of animals. Even solid bones have lines of flow on their exterior and in their spongy interior. Spiders build t... posted on Aug 17 2020, 9,537 reads

Small Joys are Essential to Resilience
"For Persians, one of our most precious ways to summon joy is with poetry. I remember one night, in particular, in my home city of Shiraz, Iran, during the war. While sirens blared and the electricity was shut off, warning of an imminent attack, my family and I (feeling especially brave) snuck to our rooftop to watch the anti-aircraft missiles shoot into the air. To my 7-year-old eyes, the brillia... posted on Aug 16 2020, 0 reads

The Church Forests of Ethiopia
Over the past century, nearly all of Ethiopia's native forests have been cleared for farming and grazing. Now it is up to the Orthodox Churches--who for centuries have safeguarded pockets of primary forest that grow around them--to preserve Ethiopias quickly shrinking biodiversity and teach people how to live with forests. ... posted on Aug 15 2020, 2,548 reads