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The Price of Non-Admission
“Only God knows the number of patients who went prematurely to their graves because of me.” (Dr. Ignawtz Semmelweis) Yesterday we spoke of the wisdom of admitting our mistakes. It simply makes sense to do so because all we’re doing is testifying that since the mistake we’ve become wiser, wise enough to see the error […]
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Learning to Relate
“Every King Holiday provides a unique opportunity to teach young people to fight evil, not people, to get in the habit of asking themselves, ‘what is the most loving way I can resolve this conflict?’” (Coretta Scott King) If I could wave a magic wand over the education system, one of my spells would be […]
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The King House
The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility. (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) One night during the Montgomery bus […]
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Do I Have To?
“Necessity is an interpretation, not a fact.” (Friedrich Nietzsche) If we could record ourselves at all times, it would be interesting to do a search for particular terms we use the most. For instance, I’d love to see how many times already this year I’ve used the following phrases: “…I have to…” “…I need to…” […]
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Go into Timeout
“Solitude is painful when one is young, but delightful when one is more mature.” (Albert Einstein) I’m not sure when “timeout” became a preferred method of parental discipline, but I know it wasn’t around when I was a kid. Perhaps not during your childhood either. We did have “go to your room!” however. In many […]
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Coaxing Bad Habits Down the Stairs
“Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs one step at a time. “ (Mark Twain) If there’s a habit going on in your house that needs to stop, don’t try tossing it out of the window; coax it downstairs instead. While we’ve all heard […]
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Thinking about Acting On Your Thinking
“Thinking is easy, acting difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action, the most difficult thing in the world.” (Goethe) I think taking my wife on a date this weekend would be a good idea. Holidays are over, oldest is back up at college, and the youngest is wanting some time with his buddies, away […]
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Everything Becomes Simple
“Life’s point of no return is that at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back.” (Dag Hammarskjold) Of course I’m being naïve, but success in life is fairly simple. All you have to do is find […]
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Loving Enough to Confront
“It is not giving children more that spoils them; it is giving them more in order to avoid confrontation.” (John Gray, Children Are From Heaven) We don’t like to admit it, but let’s try: Each of us has often gone to extreme lengths to avoid confrontation with our children. Sometimes we don’t like to disappoint […]
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Be Patient, Genius
“Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.” (Benjamin Disraeli) When facing a growing fit from a seemingly inconsolable child, there are two kinds of parents: The parent who asks the question, “How do I get this boy to calm down and behave?”, and then remembers that in the past, it took either the promise of […]