With Spring in the air and vaccinations becoming ever more commonplace, there is much talk and anticipation of returning to “normal”. After the most abnormal year that we have all collectively experienced, it’s a natural sentiment. When we pine for normalcy, it’s...
In the aftermath (hopefully) of one of the most stressful political periods in American experience, we’re left wondering about the cross-currents of ideology and communication that have produced such a destructive undertow in public life and decorum. What underlying...
Hope and gratitude are platitudes that are easy to dismiss as overused banalities. But in this week of giving thanks, and in this season where hope is once again trying to gain a toehold where it has recently found none, the two seem especially relevant. In this...
It seems like we’ve been running an unplanned experiment on the value of a spiritual community that cannot gather in person. A faith community that doesn’t come together seems almost like an oxymoron. As with many traditional societal forms, it may be that this time...
Leadership in a Time of Crisis This month’s Big Questions Forum will feature a conversation with leadership guru Marty Linsky, a member of the Harvard Kennedy School faculty, who has published extensively on leadership, management, politics, and education. There are...
In the most popular TED talk of all time, now with over 64 million views, Sir Ken Robinson asks the question, “Do schools kill creativity?” His response, spun through an enchanting 20-minute talk, makes the case that creativity is as important in education as...
“The age of anxiety has given way to the age of cynicism,” then 30-year old Mohammed Fairouz wrote a few years ago in the On Being blog. “Among my generation, cynicism is no longer a bad word: it’s celebrated, and is often mistaken for intelligence.” It’s not hard to...
The 2020 Big Questions Forum will start on Tuesday, January 28 at 7:30 in the Parlor. We are working on an interesting topic which will be announced to this distribution and via Bellnotes. The Big Questions Forum meets on the 4th Tuesday of the months of January...
