The first day we were at the ‘meditation for mediators’ retreat in Mexico a few weeks ago, masked men from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) killed Alex Pretti, a nurse who was involved in a peaceful protest against ICE’s surge in Minneapolis. While we had gathered in this beautiful, simple place to look inward, it was impossible to ignore what was happening in Minnesota. We had come to develop our compassion, yet our government’s actions were getting more … read more »

“When we came in, we were all a little compassionate. But this week enlarged our compassion pipes from the size of a vein to an artery.” This is what I said last week at the close of a 6-day training on Self-reflection for Conflict Professionals, run by the Center for Understanding in Conflict (CUC). About 24 of us mediators gathered at a rustic beachside retreat center in a tiny fishing village on the Pacific coast of Mexico. We came from … read more »

Last week, I sent out a video of Dr. Martin Luther King giving his famous speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” While I was doing the research for it, I came across this, a much less famous speech that Dr. King gave to a group of students at the Barratt Junior High School in South Philadelphia on October 27, 1967. I didn’t know about the speech – I was just a few years behind in the Philadelphia public schools at … read more »

As you know, this week, we celebrated the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. I spent time listening to several of his speeches, but the one that stood out for me most was his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, given on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated. He had gone to Memphis to support the sanitation workers in their struggle for better working conditions and higher pay. It was a time, like ours, when … read more »

This week, I watched an online book talk by David Brooks about his book, How to Know A Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen. He told stories from the book and talked a bit about the process of writing it and the people he interviewed along the way. I had listened to the book on Audible. I’ve been reading David Brooks’ opinion pieces in the New York Times for years and catch him occasionally on … read more »

Happy New Year. I hope 2026 is better for all of us, individually and collectively. I watched the inauguration of Mayor Mamdani on New Year’s Day, and Cornelius Eady’s poem really stood out to me. I read it as a poem about transformation, and as a love letter to those of us who feel like we don’t fit in anywhere, and a love letter to New York. I read it as the beginning of a roadmap for how we can … read more »

I’m going to keep it short today – I just wanted to share a very quick video that shows that even members of the same family can have very different views of reality. And our perceptions can lead to very different reactions!

I wanted to share another song the Rockland Pride Chorus sang a few weeks ago – Already Gone by Indie-folk singer songwriter, Jennifer O’Connor. It was a great joy and honor to sing with her. The New Yorker once said of Jennifer, “Her songs are plain and her presentation direct; she has a gift for brutally accurate songs about people whose lives always fall short.” (Feb 12, 2007) Here are the lyrics – and a link to the video (used … read more »