Today’s poem is, well, not a poem. Rather, it is a portion of a speech given by Teddy Roosevelt at the Sorbonne, in Paris, in 1910. I was introduced to it by reading Brene Brown’s recent book, Daring Greatly, which is not only a fantastic read but whose title is inspired by Roosevelt’s...

Is there a bad reason for going back to church? I was struck by Brene Brown’s confession that she went back to church for the wrong reasons. Actually, I know what she means. She went back to church to try to escape pain and instead found a community to help her endure pain, live with and...

I haven’t written about 9/11 this week. I’d thought about finding an appropriate prayer or something like that to mark the day, but didn’t. I think that’s for two reasons. First, so much is out there you wonder what you can contribute amid the flood of material. Second, I still...

Another video by Brene Brown, this time the follow-up to her earlier TEDTalk on vulnerability. After talking briefly about the personal repercussions of her previous Talk, she shares more of her research on shame. Shame is a powerful category in our lives and world that is, as she shows,...

One more thing from Brene Brown. This time, not a video, but two recent posts from her blog. In the first she describes a recent experience she had writing for USA Today and the affect of unfiltered comments, some of which were incredibly insulting. As she writes: Ironically, the essay is...