If you’re old enough, you may remember the Verizon commercial where a guy wanders around with his cell phone asking, “Can you hear me now?” The gimmick was meant to […]
Health and Wellness - Social and Self-Help
The Perfection of Imperfection: What Futtitinni and Wabi-Sabi Can Teach Us About a Simpler Life
There’s a Sicilian word I’ve come to love: futtitinni. It roughly translates to “don’t worry about it,” though that hardly captures its real essence. It’s often used as less of […]
Health and Wellness - Social and Self-Help
The Age of the Emotional Roomba
Sometimes it feels like we’ve stopped emotionally being people and started being more like appliances. Not the useful kind that make toast or brew coffee, but the little round kind […]
Finance and Economy - Making Money - Social and Self-Help
The Commons Economy: A New Blueprint for Human-Centered Prosperity
The idea of a “commons economy” sounds a bit quaint, like something out of a Jane Austin novel; like an echo of old village greens and shared pastures where people […]
Finance and Economy - Making Money - Social and Self-Help
The Quiet Power of Associational Life
If you really want to understand what makes a community strong, you have to look between the cracks. Not at the institutions or the official programs or the polished strategic […]
Social and Self-Help
The Art of Motivation: The Missing Ingredient in Community Development
When trying to employ Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) principles, there is one fundamental quality that must always be present in the community you’re trying to help develop. That quality is […]
Social and Self-Help
The Hegelian Dialectic of Community Building
There’s this old philosophical idea that’s quietly at work in almost every successful community initiative, whether people realize it or not. It comes from Hegel: the dialectic. Put simply, it’s […]
Social and Self-Help
Who Really Cares; A Reflection on Generosity and the Meaning of Giving
Arthur C. Brooks’s Who Really Cares is so much more than a study on charitable giving; it’s a surprising reflection of America’s moral and emotional life. The book begins with […]
Social and Self-Help
From Online to Onlined: The Quiet Shift to Real Community
Somewhere along the way, since the advent of social media, the internet convinced us that “community” was just another word for “anonymous crowd (mostly bots to be honest).” We joined […]
Social and Self-Help
Community Building Isn’t About Making Everyone Happy; It’s About Making Progress
There’s a certain point in any good community project where someone crosses their arms, leans back in their folding chair, and declares that you’ve lost your mind. This, I’ve learned, […]