Aaahhhh! Summer is here and hopefully that means you will be taking some much-needed time off. Interestingly, Americans have become so focused on productivity that we often struggle with how to unwind, destress, and actually relax. Many of us even wrestle with whether or not we should strive to achieve these things a part from a perfect world, and sense that does not exist, then why try.
We are all familiar with the exciting and encouraging opening lines of Oh the Places You’ll Go. I read it the night before going off to college, full of confidence, ready to start my life, excited to see where my brains and my feet would take me.
It is hard to believe. It is has been two years since the Pulse shooting that tragically took the lives of forty-nine people. Forty-nine lives that seem to have been cut short and many, many more who will be forever impacted—families, friends, and first responders (including all those at ORMC).
On Case Thorp’s recent trip to Scotland, he came upon this amazing stained glass window at Stirling Castle—Holy Rude Church. This window was dedicated to the Merchant Guild. By clicking on the audio bar below, hear an explanation of its origins and meaning from Brian Morrison, an elder in the Church of Scotland. Enjoy the incredible workmanship reflected in the artistry of this stained glass…what a thing of beauty!
“It’s not enough to just build tools. They need to be used for good,” said a repentant and scared Mark Zuckerberg before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees. Facebook embodies today’s cultural zeitgeist, and its disregard for privacy coupled with its mammoth influence have caused our nation to question how its unhealthy practices are impacting culture. Makoto Fujimura, surely, is pleased with Zuckerberg’s comment, as he has painted a vision for such and more in Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life.
Another school year is drawing to a close, vacation plans will soon be realized, and that business phenomenon that closely resembles a summer malaise is just on the horizon. Amidst all of these, for most of us, during the months of June, July, and August life moves more slowly or at least you have some extended period where this is the case. Even though it may take longer to transact business in the summer, there seem to be margins in our schedule that we do not enjoy at any other point in the calendar. There are enough distruptors in the ebbs and flow of life that usually our lives are lived at a slightly slower pace. These different rhythms provide welcome opportunities to squeeze in more reading.
At the corner of Liberty and Albercorn in historic Savannah, Georgia, stands a monument to the work of the Roman Catholic Sisters of Mercy. Serving the city since 1845, the sisters pioneered the creation of schools, orphanages, and hospitals, most of which still thrive today. Over the years the sisters served students, orphans, slave children, and more. They battled yellow fever and nursed Civil War soldiers back to health. The newly minted unweathered monument describes this work and concludes, “They made historic contributions to this city in the fields of education, medicine, and pastoral care.”
As Human Resources (HR) professionals, we’ve all heard the phrase ‘seat at the table’; this notion that we must manage our careers in such a way to be included in senior-level business decisions in order to be considered successful. Many of us are over it.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle said that. Aristotle, the student of Plato, the student of Socrates, which is quite the educational lineage. But I’ll come back to that in a minute.
With the month of May coming faster than any of us would care to admit, so much of our time gets consumed with all things associated with the closing out of another school year. There are certain rituals that are associated with this time of year like expressing our gratitude for those teachers that have meant so much to our kids and because of that to us. The article below appeared in Comment Magazine in February and is by Chad Wellmon. After we catch our collective breaths from reading this article, we all need to deepen your appreciation for the important role teachers have especially since, “Social media have become the new custodians of knowledge.”
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