Click to listen to this essay “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astounded at how much he had learned in seven years.” (Mark Twain) “The quality of a child’s relationshipContinue reading “Oh, My Papa…”
Category Archives: Text and Audio
Perhaps the Greatest Wisdom a Person Can Have is Knowing What They Don’t Know…
Click to listen to a recording of this essay “Awareness of ignorance is the beginning of wisdom.”(Socrates) “To know that we know what we know and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.”(Nicolaus Copernicus) “The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain IContinue reading “Perhaps the Greatest Wisdom a Person Can Have is Knowing What They Don’t Know…”
Homer Lee Meade II: The Evolution of a Civil Rights Pioneer
Listen to a recording of this essay “One ever feels his twoness — an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body, whose strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.” (W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk) “When I discover who I am,Continue reading “Homer Lee Meade II: The Evolution of a Civil Rights Pioneer”
Every Man to His Own Trade
Listen to a recording of this essay “Skills vary with the man. We must tread a straight path and strive by that which is born in us.” Pindar. Odes (5th c. B.C.) “Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labour in it, but they labour in it because they excel.” WilliamContinue reading “Every Man to His Own Trade”
Cannolis, Agita and the Evil Eye: Growing Up Italian-American
Listen to an audio version of this essay “There are two kinds of people in the world: Italians, and those who wish they were.” Anonymous “There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who think there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don’t.” Robert Benchley, Law of DistinctionContinue reading “Cannolis, Agita and the Evil Eye: Growing Up Italian-American”
The Rick Saylor Syndrome
Listen to an audio recording of this essay “The truth of these days is not that which really is, but what every man persuades another man to believe.” Montaigne, “On Giving the Lie”, Essays (1580-88) “There is no permanent, absolute, unchangeable truth; what we should pursue is the most convenient arrangement of ideas.” Butler, “TruthContinue reading “The Rick Saylor Syndrome”
Chaos: Where Disorder is the Order of the Day
Listen to a recording of this essay “As the nineteenth century advanced, it gradually dawned on theorists that energy is indestructible. The amount of energy in the universe does not change. However, it can change form, and be converted into some other kind of energy at a fixed rate of exchange.” Jeremy Campbell, Grammatical Man,Continue reading “Chaos: Where Disorder is the Order of the Day”
Courage Personified
Click to listen to a recording of this essay “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” Nelson Mandela “Courage is the fear you ignore.” Kristin Hannah, The Four Winds “It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.” Aesop, The Wolf and the Kid Life onlyContinue reading “Courage Personified”
Regrets
“I don’t regret anything I’ve ever done in life, any choice I’ve made. But, I’m consumed with regret for the things I didn’t do, the choices I didn’t make, the things I didn’t say. We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection. But, regret is the thing we should fear most.Continue reading “Regrets”
Resonance 