In “Being a Proverbial Student” I stress the importance of gaining knowledge, understanding and hopefully wisdom. To those ends, I stress the value of ideas. The recent mass shootings, without disparaging the tragic nature of the events, create an excellent opportunity for understanding one very important idea for being wise: Read more…
Context Context is one of my favorite topics in my book “Being a Proverbial Student.” Understanding the context, or frame of reference, for each of our lives is an important factor in understanding ourselves. The context for how we learn information determines how we think, our attitudes, our opinions and Read more…
Review I received very nice responses to my poem on supporting the flag. One good friend suggested we should all “read ‘The American Miracle’ by Medved which documents the astounding number of extremely improbable events/factors which had to occur to bring about our republic.” He believes we need to read Read more…
In thinking about abortion I thought about what it would take for me to take part in a formal protest. I have spoken up for people and I have spoken out on issues but never an organized protest. During this time of reflection, some protests occurred. During the 4th of Read more…
My little book, “Being a Proverbial Student,” promotes knowledge, understanding and wisdom. I am convinced proper dialog (civil discourse) is helpful in that process. For those of you who have followed my new blog adventure, you understand my current interest is creating dialog with abortion second. In response to my Read more…
ABORTION Anytime a highly emotional topic is addressed, a serious test of civil discourse occurs. Abortion is an emotional topic and will be a big test of our ability to have a dialog. I am more interested in creating dialog than the topic, although I have a high interest in Read more…
Blog # 4 ABORTION: The Possible Opinions. Well, if we are going to discuss serious issues –we just as well start with a really, really big one. Given the current political environment I am reasonably certain of two things: first, new state laws are going to lead to a Supreme Read more…
Why am I spending so much time on dialog? I am beginning this little blog adventure with a discussion of civil discourse and proper dialog for two reasons. First, I want to improve my ability to engage in civil discourse at home, with my family and friends, in my Read more…
Our youngest grandson graduated from Vanderbilt. His graduation/commencement ceremony was outdoors on a very hot, humid, sunny day. His college was the last of several to walk across the stage. Williams was late in the names for his college. It was a long, tough, but worthwhile, day. Mercifully Read more…
Civil Discourse #1 Recently I read an excellent column by Dana Hall McCain, an opinion writer on faith and politics for AL.com. She wrote about the struggles of right-leaning podcaster, Matt K. Lewis and left-leaning podcaster Jamie Kilstein. Both men were having difficulties accepting the extreme positions of their political Read more…