Category: Notes From The Road

It’s easy to talk about lofty principles. It’s easy to follow those principles when following them leads to comfortable short-term outcomes. It’s easy to impose the difficult consequences of our principles on others. It’s hard to follow our principles consistently, regardless of circumstances, especially when the short-term outcomes might be disappointing or painful. But following […]

It was an interesting online conversation. A pretty well-known personality fielded questions about a published article. As always, comments ranged from helpful and educational to silly. This one caught my attention. “You’re not the smartest guy in the room, are you?” In the online world, a snarky remark isn’t all that unusual. It was the […]

Four years ago. Someone who’s in a leadership position in one of my circles publicly celebrated a difficult, divisive outcome. An outcome I knew would elicit fear and anguish in people I loved. An outcome I believed would bring real pain. If felt like he was laughing at those who wished for a different direction. […]

Right now, all around us, folks are literally crying out for us to just stop talking and listen. Not argue or agree. Not discuss or fix. I think these folks are literally begging us to listen. A few times recently I’ve seen someone online doing what could generously be described as “venting.” Often there are […]

It seems lots of folks are drawing lines these days. Everywhere I look I see lines about US and THEM. Here’s the line: you’re either on my side, or the wrong side. Those who draw them are certain they’re absolute, true, and righteous, but in fact they’re mostly opinions transformed into hard-and-fast rules, unnecessary false […]