Archive for March, 2005

Don’t stop to wave, you’ll drown

“Why are women immobile? Because so many feel like they’re waiting for someone to say, “You’re good, you’re pretty, I give you permission.” –Eve Ensler This week, I watched a videotape of Eve Ensler speaking at the 2004 Omega Institute “Women in Power” conference. Ensler is a playwright most famous for “The Vagina Monologues,” which has played in 76 countries,…
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Save face for someone else

“Our dignity is not in what we do, but what we understand.” – George Santayana When I was in high school, I had my dream job. Mrs. Barnett, the head librarian at the Morganton-Burke Public Library, had literally watched me grow up there. As a child, I was in the library every Saturday. And every Saturday, I checked out the…
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Embrace your clearness committee

“Whenever I climb, I am followed by a dog named Ego.” –Friedrich Nietzche I came across a story this week that intrigued me. I could see myself in it, if truth be told, and perhaps if you squint, you can see some tiny part of yourself in it as well. It’s a story about Parker Palmer, a Quaker educator and…
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Search for beneficial surprise

Every summer, I escape to the beautiful countryside outside Portland, Oregon, to teach for a few weeks at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication. It’s a fantastic learning space, with people from all over the world. This summer, I’ll teach two 5-day courses: one from July 25-29 on “Building Effective Diverse Teams in Organizations” with my friend, colleague, and co-author,…
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Be outraged by your own racism

“No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.” –Elie Wiesel When my oldest daughter was in the first grade, she stopped me cold with just 16 words. “Mom,” she said as we stopped at a traffic light near Dupont Circle in Washington, DC, where we lived. "Why do you…
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