Category: articles
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A peaceable man does more good than a well-learned
“First keep yourself in peace, and then will you be able to be a peacemaker towards others. A peaceable man does more good than a well-learned. A passionate man turns even good into evil and easily believes evil; a good, peaceable man converts all things into good. He who dwells in peace is suspicious of…
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Why are you wearied with superfluous cares?
“Why are you consumed with vain sorrow? Why are you wearied with superfluous cares? Stand you by My good pleasure, and you will suffer no loss. If you seek after this or that, and will be here or there, according to your own advantage or the fulfilling of your own pleasure, you will never be…
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Making The Joplin Undercurrent — Our Second Photonovel
Making the Joplin Undercurrent, our second photonovel, may be the trickiest ledge I’ve ever had to walk creatively. And you guys know I love walking that line. Two years ago through our working relationship with the Joplin Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, Mark Neuenschwander and I talked over the virtues and vices of Cold Brewed, which is…
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We rarely recover spiritual loss
“Behold a temporal loss is mourned over; for a trifling gain we labour and hurry; and spiritual loss passes away into forgetfulness, and we rarely recover it. That which profits little or nothing is looked after and that which is altogether necessary is negligently passed by; because the whole man slides away to outward things,…
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Imagination Confines Us in Mystery
“By means of the imagination we confine our mind within the mystery on which we meditate, that it may not ramble to and fro, just as we shut up a bird in a cage or tie a hawk by his leash so that he may rest on the hand.” — Francis de Sales
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Doing Your Best Brings Happiness
“Often we imagine that we will work hard until we arrive at some distant goal, and then we will be happy. This is a delusion. Happiness is the result of a life lived with purpose. Happiness is not an objective. It is the movement of life itself, a process, and an activity. It arises from…
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Two Americas :: Thoughts on the Foster-to-Homeless Pipeline, the American Worship of Comfort, and Finding Your Calcutta
Now and again you’ll come across a strange night where you learn about yourself and, if you take action, those nights change your life’s entire trajectory . Tonight was one of those nights for me and I think I’ve placed a stake in the ground in a way that ten years from now will illuminate something of a…
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Whoever got you here won’t get you there. Or will they?
Last year, I was having a nice conversation with a communications executive about my frustration working for a second time with a former collaborator. Her response was: Well you know what they say: whoever got you here won’t be the one to get you there. It’s brutal, but true. For months after her advice, I…
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A Life of Learning :: Striving for the Striver’s Life
“When am I ever going to use this in real life?” Remember asking that in sophomore Algebra? Here’s the best-kept secret in education: this inevitable question pokes a hole not only in algebra but also in every other subject. Through that hole, a light leaks in from a land much deeper and higher: from a…
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Lone Wolf Artist: On Bad Myths, Guilds, and Societies
Some idiot along the way started lying to us. The lie was this: that genius, that true genial power, can only happen when some dude or dudette cordons themselves off from society to spend the next decade crafting his masterpiece. Lone wolf artists. It has many sources, frankly, but the lion’s share of the burden of the lone wolf artist…
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The 2016 Worbemusties — Worst, Bests, and Musts of the year behind and before
A few years back, I did these Worbemustie awards on my site. It was a way to look backwards and forwards — backwards to the bests and worsts of the previous year (did I accomplish my goals?) and forwards to the next year. The bests, worsts, and musts. You know, The 2016 Worbemusties. We start…
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Novels Like Babies Don’t Need Perfect Parents
When Tara and I still lived in Joplin, I witnessed one father’s transformation from a mediocre parent into a good parent. He’d been the kind of tiger dad, the ruthless victor, who pushed his kids towards success and integrity at the expense of their joy (his words, not mine). He and I were walking through…