Finding Your Soul by David Anderson
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When the Head Drops Into the Heart
The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter. ― Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking None of us can be sure of half the things we claim to know or believe. The congressional bill we’re either for…
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How I Turned My House Into Pompeii (And What I Learned)
Crash. Pam, from downstairs, “[Unintelligible outburst punctuated by very intelligible curse.]” I close my laptop and hurry to the scene. Pam is standing in front of a kitchen cabinet, white from the knees down. The shelf has given way and a bag of flour has fallen, exploding on the floor. Two pounds “Let me get…
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Creativity and Hope
A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery It was hard work today, transplanting things that should have been dug up more than a month ago. But today was the day. Snow was coming, and that…
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I Don’t Need Heaven
It is a moment of no significance. We are standing Christmas Day in the outdoor kitchen—adults in parkas and kids cavorting—gathered around the big propane burner my wife pulls out to fry doughnuts or fish and hush puppies or French fries, like her father did. Today it is paper-thin potato slices, bound with butter and…
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My Wednesday Ashes Came from my Fireplace
Today my ashes came from my fireplace. I reached in, ground my thumb into the soot and cross-signed my wife’s forehead, saying the words I’ve said thousands of times but only in church. Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Then Pam ashed her thumb and imposed that counterintuitive grace upon…
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The Field Beyond Good and Evil
You’re not a good person, and you’re not a bad person. Those were the first words from the presenter at a conference I was attending on confronting racial bias. When people are asked to look into their own hearts and be honest about unconscious bias, the presenter noted, we all say, “But I’m a good…
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Awake Apnea
We hear a lot about sleep apnea these days, but apnea—the cessation of breath—is happening to nearly all of us, all the time. It’s awake apnea, brief periods during the day when we stop breathing or drop into shallow respiration, barely breathing. I notice breathing much more these days since I was diagnosed a few…
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God’s One-Star Reviews
While doing some advance planning for a summer vacation I came across some Yelp reviews of America’s National Parks. Charge me with an “OK Boomer” offense, but I struggle with the idea of reviewing natural wonders on Yelp. Death Valley “Don’t waste your time!! I paid $20.00 for nothing but nasty rock and salt.” “I…
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Competing for the Worst
“We come home, walk in the door and compete for who had the shittiest day.” It was a holiday dinner party, a few days before Christmas, and everyone was tired of hearing stories of crazed and exhausted people. That’s when Fred spoke up. Immediately we all broke into laughter: it was so true. Of us.…