A celebration in five quotations Sometimes the words of others frame our sentiments of appreciation. Here are five quotations that came to mind when thinking of a great teacher, Terry Schreiber. There is more understanding required in the teaching of’ others than in being taught Montaigne I joined the Terry Schreiber Studio in 1980 and […]
Author: testingapersonalhistory
Our Problems With Authority III: The Helluva Lot of Hail Marys Project
The final installment in our trilogy about Our Problems With Authority takes on the hard part: what do we do about them? No easy answers, but lots of references read and considered during this exercise that should be important to all of us. We need both freedom and authority, we need to regain a commonality among citizens
TESTING ASSUMPTIONS: Our Problems With Authority Part II
Authority itself is inherently an act of imagination Richard Sennett By definition, an assumption is a belief or concept taken for granted. Testing assumptions generally only happens when circumstances contradict that which we have presupposed as rules and realities of life. Or we want to make sure that our current plans under those assumptions won’t […]
TESTING ASSUMPTIONS: Our Problems With Authority
Part I of III Part IA: AUTHORITY — Missing Person or Murder Case? The end of the world as we know it bleeds endlessly through my screens and newspapers. The ‘times’ in end times is plural, so fixing one particular day as the finale is tricky and there might yet be a rescue, but some cliffhangers do result in the heroes […]
Defending Your Writes: Are How-To Books for Authors Hooey?
Short answer: Depends upon what you consider a ‘How-To-Write’ book Yes, my good and faithful readers,’ ‘writes’ is a word; Obsolete in most places admittedly and only used in northeastern Scotland as of 1974, but it’s a real word signifying ‘A written record or work; a book, a letter, a document, etc.’ Even if it […]
01132026 Quote of the Day
“The authentic and pure values — truth, beauty and goodness — in the activity of a human being are the result of one and the same act, a certain application of the full attention to the object.”Simone Weill
FITZGERALD CHANGED HIS MIND ABOUT SECOND ACTS: we all should
HENRY OLIVER’S BOOK TELLS US HOW WE CAN STAGE A SECOND ACT IN OUR OWN LIVES Eventually, this post will get to a strong recommendation for Henry Oliver’s book, but first we have to clean up some Fitzgeraldiana related to second acts. Like many other besotted English majors of my and other generations, F Scott […]
Testing Assumptions: Meritocracy
My dear friend Zeineb Mahzouz sent me an article that drills into a subject that surfaces again and again in my stew of concerns: meritocracy.
TESTING ASSUMPTIONS: NOT BORN YESTERDAY BY HUGO MERCIER
The subtitle of this book is The Science Of Who We Trust And What We Believe, and its purpose is to disabuse us of ideas about how we decide, who we can have faith in, and what we should accept as real. Mercier, research director at the CNRS, Institut Jean Nicod, Paris, is of the […]
Never Can Give Too Many Thanks
ARCHIVIO GBB/Alamy Stock Photo; Getty Images Whether we share his faith or not, the words and actions of Pope Leo gain our attention for their sincerity and strength. While speaking with NBC’s Molly Hunter on Nov. 25, the Chicago native shared what he hopes people remember during the annual holiday: I would encourage all people, […]