Posted in Blog on Nov 17th, 2009
The entire country seems to be having a deer in headlights moment: stunned with fear. With our social fabric rent to shreds, if there ever was a time for a new model, this is it. Cooperative community diners pose an elegant solution that may solve myriad problems on many levels. The diners of my youth [...]
Posted in Blog on Nov 16th, 2009
On a a splendid fall Saturday afternoon, a young man stood outside a convenience store with three children ranging in height from 2 feet to 3 feet. As they dug into their candy, the little girl dropped her wrapper on the ground. I took a deep breath and approached the father suggesting that this was [...]
Posted in Blog on Oct 15th, 2009
Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell’s new book splendidly portrays what can happen when brilliance meets advantage and opportunity. And what doesn’t happen when brilliance runs into the brick wall of family dysfunction. Gladwell’s premise is that those who spectacularly outperform everyone else were not just brilliant, they were also able to take advantage of the opportunities that [...]
Posted in Blog on Sep 13th, 2009
There is nothing like a collapsed economy to show what people are made of. A once quite comfortable woman now cares for older people who still have the means to pay others for help. She wondered where she will be in 20 years when she is eighty-something and needs care. Her tangible resources have evaporated [...]
Posted in Blog on Aug 7th, 2009
Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation is a triumph over adversity. Being a single parent may sometimes feel like a slog through hell. Children in single parent homes have many long hours to fill and their youthful choices set the stage for success or struggle later in life. Whoever helped Miss Sotomayor with her homework did [...]
Posted in Blog on Jun 11th, 2009
What that means is that you have contact with many, many more people, but each of those relationships takes up a little bit less of your life. That fragmentation of the social world creates a lot of loneliness.
Posted in Blog on May 25th, 2009
As we honor our military, our soldiers and our war dead this Memorial Day, do we recognize the hidden legacy of war? I speak from direct experience. My father suffered a shrapnel wound in his upper leg during World War II which crippled him physically and emotionally for the rest of his life. Nurturing connected [...]
Posted in Blog on May 24th, 2009
What could be more encouraging than that? Even years after reading Blessed Unrest, Paul Hawken’s message, that millions of people all over the planet are working with a burning passion to correct injustice in the world, continues to inspire hope. His commencement address at the University of Portland acknowledges head-on that we have only a [...]
Posted in Blog on May 21st, 2009
The University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives recently completed the first phase of research to evaluate the economic impact of cooperatives. The findings: cooperatives account for approximately $654 billion in revenue, over 2 million jobs, $75 billion in wages and benefits paid and $133.5 billion in value-added income. Because cooperatives are member owned, managed and [...]
Posted in Blog on May 11th, 2009
Happy Mother’s Day, our annual ritual honoring mothers. Beyond honoring, I want all mothers to be supported with actual systems and actions that make nurturing children easier. The person who sent this video clip, four laughing babies, called it her anti-depressant. These babies bring out our laughter. What strikes you about this clip? The darling [...]