A Question I Cannot Treat Lightly I have heard the argument that a religion teaching people to love their enemies must be dangerous because oppressed people sometimes need to resist those harming them. I understand why that argument can strike a nerve, especially when Christianity is placed beside the history of slavery. Black people have
When Faith, Slavery, and Freedom Collide Read More »
The Value of Stepping Away I have come to appreciate the idea that sometimes the most productive thing a person can do is stop working for a moment and think. That sounds almost backwards in a culture that rewards movement, speed, and constant availability. We are taught to answer the email, return the call, finish
Sometimes the Most Productive Thing We Can Do Is Stop and Think Read More »
The Cost We Rarely See I once heard somebody ask, “What is the most expensive thing poor people buy?” Most of us might immediately think about expensive clothes, cars, jewelry, vacations, or other things people sometimes purchase when they really cannot afford them. But I believe there is something poverty can make far more expensive
The Most Expensive Thing Poverty Buys Is Urgency Read More »
The Part of My Story You Never Heard Sometimes people decide I became the villain because they only saw the part where I walked away. They saw the distance, the silence, the boundaries, and the version of me that stopped showing up the way I used to. What they did not hear were the conversations
If I Became the Villain in Your Story, So Be It Read More »
Buying Power Is Not the Same as Wealth Every year somebody reminds Black America that we have enormous buying power, and the number usually lands somewhere around the trillion-dollar range. The figure sounds impressive because trillions sound like economic strength. But I have learned that money moving through our hands is not the same thing
We Keep Celebrating the River Instead of Building the Reservoir Read More »
Nobody Alive Today Owned American Slaves Let us begin with something that ought to be simple enough for everybody to understand. Nobody alive today personally owned enslaved people in the United States before slavery was abolished in 1865. A white person living today is not personally guilty for something done by somebody who lived generations
We Do Not Inherit Guilt, but We Do Inherit History Read More »
The People Closest to Us Can Feel the Sharpest Edge One thing I have learned about love is that closeness gives another person access to places strangers will probably never reach. When I love somebody, I learn what makes them smile, what frightens them, what embarrasses them, and what they still carry from years ago.
When Love Stops Keeping Score Read More »
What Chess Taught Me About Life The older I get, the more I understand why people compare life to a game of chess. Chess requires patience, attention, planning, and the ability to think beyond whatever is happening directly in front of you. Life asks many of those same things from us. One emotional decision can
Don’t Let a Small Win Make You Forget the Game Read More »
When Quantum Language Meets Everyday Life I understand why certain ideas from quantum physics can make us look at life differently. At the quantum level, nature does not always behave according to the common sense we use in everyday life. Quantum mechanics describes physical systems using probabilities, and measurement plays an important role in determining
Becoming the Person Who Can Live the Life I Want Read More »
The Question Behind Venting I heard somebody say that venting is evil, and I understood the concern even though I would not go that far. There are times when people unload everything they are carrying onto somebody else without first asking whether that person has the emotional room to receive it. We have probably all
Venting Is Not Evil, but We Should Be Careful Where We Put Our Pain Read More »