The Foundation of Character I once heard it said that courage may be the most important of all the virtues because without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue consistently. The older I get, the more sense that makes to me. Anybody can be kind when kindness costs them nothing. Anybody can tell the truth
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A Traffic Stop Can Change Quickly I have learned that some of the most ordinary questions can carry more weight than we realize, especially during a traffic stop. An officer may walk up to the window and casually ask, “Where are you coming from tonight?” To most people, that sounds like harmless conversation, and our
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The Idea of the “Dark Empath” I had heard people talk about empaths, and Lord knows I had heard plenty about narcissists. Then I came across another term that caught my attention: the “dark empath.” At first, it sounded like a person who understood other people’s feelings but used that understanding in the wrong way.
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A Different Kind of Education I have learned over the years that education does not always come from a classroom. Some of our most important lessons come from family, neighborhoods, workplaces, churches, the military, and the difficult situations we face in life. People who come up around the streets can develop a sharp understanding of
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What I Came to Understand About Education The older I get, the more I understand that education is about much more than what happens inside a classroom. We are usually taught that you go to college to earn a degree, learn a profession, and hopefully find yourself a good job. All of that is true,
Proximity Has Power: Sometimes the Education Is Bigger Than the Classroom Read More »
The Interview Is One Stop, Not the Destination One lesson I have learned about looking for work is that we can give one interview entirely too much power over our emotions. We walk into that room hoping this particular company will recognize our experience, ability, and potential. We prepare our answers, put on our best
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The Night Everything Changed On August 13, 1990, Curtis Mayfield walked onto an outdoor stage at Wingate Field in Brooklyn expecting to do what he had done for decades. He was forty-eight years old, still performing and creating music, with a voice people recognized the moment they heard it. Then the weather turned dangerous, and
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A Claim That Made Me Stop and Think I recently came across a claim that made me stop because it described racism in a way I had never heard before. The speaker said researchers had studied the brain waves of racist white men and women and discovered patterns resembling addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The idea
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That Strange Moment With AI If you have spent enough time talking with an artificial intelligence system, you may have experienced a moment that made you sit back and say, “Hold on now, where did that come from?” You ask what seems like a simple question, and suddenly the AI introduces a philosophy, historical connection,
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The Campaign Against Martin Luther King Jr. The more I learn about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the more I realize that his struggle went far beyond marches, speeches, and street demonstrations. Behind the scenes, the federal government was watching him with an intensity that should trouble anybody who values freedom. FBI Director J. Edgar
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