many ways in which we’re alienated from each other. And that’s one of the things we lose, that kind of productive conversation that can move a person’s thinking forward and can expand a person’s — not just their acceptable vocabulary, but also their real understanding. Tippett:Their understanding and their presence in the world, their ability to move forward. Another very striking thing about this moment we inhabit is, we’re aware of all this unfinished business, these things we actually thought we’d made so much progress on, but also seeing full circle that the legacy of whiteness is now costing white people: the foreclosure crisis or opiate a... posted on Jun 16 2020 (7,759 reads)

tend to be the most challenging arena for spiritually-oriented people. We may be fine reading our spiritual books and being on retreat but what happens when we deal with a friend, partner, or family member with whom we are in conflict? Inner peace can fly out the window in the blink of an eye followed by days of inner turmoil. As a result, we may want to avoid the messy business of relationships and hole up in a monastery for awhile. We can approach human relationships as a catalyst rather than an obstacle to spiritual growth. Relationships are where the rubber hits the road, where residues of the separate-inside-self, large or small, get exposed and worked through. It is th... posted on Jul 4 2020 (6,421 reads)

Then we’d get out, walk down the hall, and knock on their door. When Grandma Minnie let us in, we could smell the food in the kitchen. Their living room had high bookshelves filled with books of all sizes and colors, hundreds of them. Grandpa Max never had any formal schooling beyond age 12 in the old country. At age 15 he was able to get a steamship ticket and traveled alone to America, not speaking a word of English, seeking a better life. By age 20 he was running his own successful business, a dress factory. He was able to bring his parents, and all of his brothers except the oldest, who wanted to stay in Europe, to America. Whenever he wasn’t working, Grandpa Max loved to... posted on Jul 13 2020 (6,492 reads)

a child, Venkat grew up in a middle class family in Bombay and got an opportunity to study in an ordinary school. Seeing some of his childhood friends like Manohar and Harry drop-out due to the vicious cycle of poverty, Venkat realized “just where you are born makes all the difference in your life”. His whole life ever since has been a sincere, untiring attempt to be an instrument for a more equal world.  Studying at IIM Ahmedabad, India’s best business school, at a young age of 21 when his friends dreamt of a fancy career, Venkat was busy writing in his college assignment “I see myself as an instrument or tool that is available to society. And my choices s... posted on Jul 28 2020 (5,447 reads)

opening the lens of our awareness, this truth becomes clear, and we can no longer rationalize the irrational, or deny the undeniable. It is upon us now. I realize that warnings of “collapse,” “end times,” “apocalypse,” and the “end of civilization” are often viewed as fringe, “doomer” or alarmist, but I also believe that on some level, we are all feeling it. To the naked eye, things may still look relatively “normal” as business-as-usual plods along, but lurking below the surface, many of us know something very different. The Greek definition of apocalypse is “revelation,” or “a lifting of the ve... posted on Aug 25 2020 (8,286 reads)

displays of generosity”. Or perhaps as David Remnick comments “Philanthropy isn’t only fascinating in itself; it’s also a window into the structure of the contemporary world”. There is little trust in ‘the man of wealth considering himself the mere trustee and agent for his poor brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to administer’. This criticism of philanthropy covering for the excesses of business is rather more widespread today than before. In a sense, the pursuit of profit alone, or the doctrine of shareholder primacy at the expense of other stakeholders is under attack; and has been... posted on Oct 9 2020 (4,799 reads)

suffering? What deepens it, for ourselves and for others? Certain forces, certain actions, certain habits of mind. And what leads us to the end of suffering? The sense of connection, instead of isolation, or clarity instead of confusion. And that’s how it’s all looked at. So it’s not like you get mean to yourself, [laughs] or rejecting, when you see one of these forces. So I just love the image, and right away, I could see myself happily sitting at home, minding my own business, and hear a knock at the door. So I get up, and I open it up, and there’s fear. There’s shame. There’s jealousy. And I either fling open the door and say, “Welcome hom... posted on Oct 24 2020 (7,669 reads)

sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor.  That's not my business.  I don't want to rule or conquer anyone.   I should like to help everyone if possible. We all want to help one another -- human beings are like that.  We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful.  But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. ... posted on Nov 3 2020 (9,664 reads)

a professional grantmaker and manager with some of the world's leading foundations, David Bonbright sought innovative approaches to strengthening citizen self-organization in place of prevailing bureaucratic, top-down models. While with the Ford Foundation, David was declared persona non grata by the apartheid government in South Africa for helping fund the liberation struggle. In 1990, in the final years of that struggle, he entrepreneured the development of some key building block organizations for civil society in the new South Africa. He then founded and now runs an international nonprofit dedicated to bringing constituent feedback to social change practice. He had an unexpected i... posted on Dec 8 2020 (3,771 reads)

the journey work of the stars,” the young Walt Whitman sang in one of the finest poems from his Song of Myself — the aria of a self that seemed to him then, as it always seems to the young, infinite and invincible. But when a paralytic stroke felled him decades later, unpeeling his creaturely limits and his temporality, he leaned on the selfsame reverence of nature as he considered what makes life worth living: After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, love, and so on — have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear — what remains? Nature remains; to bring out from their torpid recess... posted on Nov 30 2020 (5,521 reads)

Ebola survivors. Can you tell us about the process of constructing this narrative? Writing is a solitary endeavor, right? But you can make it a bit more social. And for this book, it had to be a social process. Of course, very saliently, I was writing with the people whose stories and history are told here. They all had knowledge that was unfamiliar to me, and I just decided that every time one of them said something that triggered that tingly feeling of unfamiliarity, I would make it my business to learn more. When I heard something I didn't understand—which was all the time, every day—into my notebook it went. One of the things I wanted to do was to read (with Bai... posted on Dec 16 2020 (3,702 reads)

events and guides Vision Quests. Since settling back into city life, she’s been writing a second memoir about re-wilding the urban soul. Why does all this matter right now? One of Claire’s mentors, wilderness guide and psychologist Bill Plotkins, puts it well. He says that reconnecting with nature and our own wildness “not only re-enlivens us as individuals, but also erodes the outworn Western worldview of a meaningless, disenchanted universe upon which life-assailing business-as-usual depends.” For Claire, delving into direct connection with nature helps us to know ourselves more deeply, so that we can grow up and show up for each other—and for the mor... posted on Mar 1 2021 (4,606 reads)

with its claims to universal validity, this one way of knowing, promised us wealth and peace. The profits grew, but our trees, homes, and lands were disrespected; we became more efficient, but our efficiencies crowded out our cultures and languages. Now we can no longer abide economic structure and ideological monologue that considers our wellbeing an afterthought, our lands a lifeless mass of dirt awaiting capitalist redemption, and our cultures a cosmetic distraction from the more serious business of making more money. We cannot listen for too long to the boastings of a pixel pretending to be the entire picture. Bayo, Ej, and Alethea Akomolafe. photography | James River Richmond... posted on Apr 25 2021 (6,649 reads)

had communications, who could best create for them the quilts that they imagined.  When they were ready, families contacted their assigned quilters directly. Personal belongings were exchanged across the miles all with the utmost of trust. Relationships were established. Amazing quilts were created, spectacularly memorializing those whose lives had been cut short, each quilt unique and beautiful like the life it honored. The quilts were made from ties, t-shirts, bathrobes and sweaters, business suits, wedding attire, photographs, turbans, scarves, treasured clothing and personal items. The quilters provided all other necessary materials, including batting and backing fabric. Many gr... posted on Apr 29 2021 (7,121 reads)

because I was able to see what different people were thinking. I want to bring that back into the live classroom.” Success depends on your ability to make other people successful. That’s why investing time into learning effective leadership skills is so important. Grant said, “One of the things I hear pretty frequently, especially when I work with executive MBA students, is they’re at a point in their careers where they say, ‘I did an undergraduate business degree and I wish I had paid attention to [building leadership skills] earlier.’ And my goal when somebody finishes a class of mine is that they never have that thought again — th... posted on May 30 2021 (5,217 reads)

three years old, the very first thing we are taught is to give. In our families, we are shown how to give. We learn that when we receive something that we really cherish and we really care about, that it is the first thing we should give up, because our community is to be cherished on that level. Our people and our land is be cherished on that level. And if we don’t know how to give like that, we are poor. We are in poverty. We might hoard all the things that we think our family or our business needs, but we are poor. We used to drive through some of the cities, and my mother would look around her and she would say, “Those poor rich people! Those poor, poor rich people!&rdq... posted on Jul 13 2021 (8,612 reads)

No, cut the tethers. “But how will I go up?” That’s the hilarious question. If you cut the tethers, you’re going up. There’s nothing for you to do at that point. Do you understand that?  So, don’t be thinking anything like that, all this spiritual mumbo-jumbo, all right. Stop screwing with these ripples. Relax. Let them pass. “But they’re not passing.” They will, if you leave them alone. How long will it take? None of your business. Does it make sense to you? You understand that? All right? You let go. “But what if the tether is hard to cut? How do I go up without cutting it?” You don’t. “But wha... posted on Dec 31 1969 (138 reads)

what he did. Look at what he did here. If you have clothes, and you don't have enough time to wash them, he brought a washing machine to your doorstep, mounted on a two-wheeler. So here's a model where a two-wheeler washing machine ... He is washing your clothes and drying them at your doorstep. (Applause) You bring your water, you bring your soap, I wash the clothes for you. Charge 50 paisa, one rupee for you per lot, and a new business model can emerge. Now, what we need is, we need people who will be able to scale them up.  Look at this. It looks like a beautiful photograph. But you know what it... posted on Sep 3 2021 (3,871 reads)

out, "Is it you, Richard?" It was Kate.       Inside, the house was warm and welcoming, full of plants and more things to look at. Kate introduced me to Claudia Goldberg and invited me join them at the kitchen table. Claudia happened to be visiting and was a long-time member of the Threshold Choir. The three of us chatted a little over tea and toast with jam. I felt like I might have been on the other side of the pond. You know, I thought to myself, I like this business of meeting people and talking with them.         Over ten years have passed since Kate Munger founded the first Threshold Choir. Now there are over a hundred. On the... posted on Oct 6 2021 (6,883 reads)

there it goes, you know? And there it goes. Cynthia: Beautiful. It's incredible. I was getting a sense, as you were talking -- you were very embodied -- and I was getting a sense of what it might look like in these sterile hospital rooms with this team of -- well, are you all women? Is your team all women? Shay: It's not all women, no. Cynthia: Ok, females and males almost like dancing and communicating in nonverbal ways, and outside the door is hospital business as usual. I love it. I love it. And it gives me hope that these kinds of healings are happening and have been happening, you know, sort of hidden in plain sight for decades now. So that's... posted on Dec 31 1969 (166 reads)