This space goes dark for the next 2 1/2 weeks as we take a long awaited vacation trip. An early wish for a great Christmas season, and Happy 2016. My most uplifting find recently has been “Let there be Peace on Earth”, sung Sep 5, 2015, for Pope Francis and many other religious leaders at […]
My summary: We demand leadership from the top (someone else); and thoughtful leaders who value consensus building amidst differences are crucial. But we really need to expect leadership from ourselves. As Margaret Mead famously said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed it is the only thing […]
As 2015 ends, all best wishes for peace and kindness embracing everyone, everywhere. As sung so movingly at Pope Francis’ visit to the Twin Towers Memorial in NYC some months ago, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” Here are two stories to help bring perspective as 2015 comes towards […]
“Seek First to Understand, Then To Be Understood“; Stephen Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. (click on photos to enlarge them) My growing up was in the tiniest of communities in various parts of North Dakota. The population density of ND, then, was roughly ten persons per square mile. Today it is really not […]
Today is Pearl Harbor Day. Anyone who knows me, knows my Uncle Frank Bernard went down with the USS Arizona Dec 7, 1941. A year ago, Dec. 7, 2014, was especially emotional. I was given an opportunity to speak publicly about my Uncle at the December 7 observance at Landmark Center in St. Paul. The […]
NOTE: The important UN Panel on Climate Change in Paris, COP21, continues (this link provides much information about the conference). It was pushed off the front page by the Nov. 13 tragic attacks in Paris, but my friend, Christine Loys, brought it back to my own radar screen with a welcome recent and unexpected message. […]
The afternoon of San Bernardino, December 2, 2015, I was in Bloomington MN at Presbyterian Home, visiting my long time friend, Lynn, who had been admitted there the previous day. It had been a very tough month for Lynn and his family. The previous week, beginning with Thanksgiving evening, when he went into intensive care […]
Eight years ago – it was June of 2007 – I decided to drop in on the annual meeting of World Citizen, one of the member groups of the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers, of which I was then President. During this meeting, an elderly man, Lynn Elling, who turned out to be the person who […]
This is the first year I can recall not purchasing or sending or giving a single Thanksgiving card. I was thinking about that this morning, then it occurred to me that I was making my judgment about reality based on television news, which has truly become the “daily dismal”, particularly in recent days (not everyone […]
Antoine Leiris’ powerful message to the terrorists who killed his wife in Paris, November 13, 2015. As of this morning over 50,000,000 views on Facebook: here Thursday, at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, the November 2015 Program Notes included this Thanksgiving Essay by Dan Chouinard. It is presented here as both pdf ( Dan Chouinard002) and […]