Oscar Wilde said that "Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes."
And yet, we don't seem to learn from our mistakes very often. Over and over again, we revisit some bad choice either until it kills us or we actually learn to stop doing that. I have a dear friend who grieves…
Whenever you see the term "social justice" you have to realize that this phrase is PACKED with underlying subtext. To ignore this is to be either ignorant or dishonest, neither of which commends itself to being a wise person. Recently there was the usual dust-up over a very public argument over this phrase and it…
I love this quote from Confucius "A man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life." That's good. You see, it isn't wrong to not know something; it's wrong to not care whether you know or not. A wise person is a…
When I was growing up in a small, Pentecostal church in Atlanta, I was amazed at the number of folks in American Christianity really preoccupied with the "signs of the times." It seemed that each event in politics or world events "signaled" the "end times." Fortunately, my pastor was one of the few Pentecostal ministers…
I don't believe in "fairness." Really! I really don't believe in it at all. Oh, I get the concept, don't get me wrong, but I simply don't believe humans are capable of it. At least not yet, anyway.
In fact, the older I get the more I'm convinced that the constant screaming for fairness is…
On this Sunday of Orthodoxy where we celebrate the Triumph of Orthodoxy and the restoration of the Holy Icons, we are invited by Christ to see greater things because God becomes visible for our salvation. Our great Faith is meant to enchant the world with greater things, and we are meant to make the invisible…
In front of the Supreme Court is the statue of "Lady Justice." This is an ancient symbol of the purpose of law-based society. Notice the "Lady" is blindfolded. In one hand she holds the scales and in the other a sword. The symbolism is clear. The application of the Law will be blind and won't…
Lech Walesa was the Polish electrician who helped found the Solidarity Trade Union in 1983. This was the first independent trade union in the old Soviet Union and became the political movement that drove communism out of Poland. While visiting the United States after becoming the 2nd president of a free Poland he commented on…
It wasn't that I didn't try. I did try. I read how to do it. I got some good advice. I bought the right fertilizer. I weeded. I hoed. And the garden still crashed and burned! Hey, I guess I'm not very good at gardening. Kind of like I am fishing. Oh well, some of…
“She made me do it.” This was the “excuse of my daughter when I asked her why she hit her sister! Wow, that’s a lot of power to give to someone else!
It seems we humans have a particular gift for shifting the blame to someone else when we make mistakes. We also seem to…