Middle School Graduation Letter

May 4, 2011

Anna Banana,

As you conclude Middle School and prepare for High School, we are very proud of you. Not because of your athletic ability in soccer and basketball. Not because of your good grades or thriftiness. Not because of your unique, colorful, and neat style of dress. Nor is it because of your leadership on the soccer field or at Campus Life. Though you can quickly mow the lawn, that is not the reason either. All of this brings us delight, but our pride in our Anna Joy springs forth from something deeper.

We are very proud of you because of who you are on the inside. You have a compassionate spirit for others, especially those who are friendless and lonely. You have a good sense of justice—desiring fairness for all. You are a true friend to many people.

We like the way you think and question. You ask good questions that show you desire to know the truth and do what is right. You are not afraid to question

You Might Have the Wrong Benefits Broker if…

 

Sure, he or she is your broker. They are there to help you select the right employee benefits and insurance for your employees. But are they THE broker for your team?  Here are a few thoughts to assist you in answering this question.

 

You might have the wrong benefits broker if…

• You ask her about COBRA and she offers you two free tickets to Zoo Atlanta to tour the reptile exhibit.

•  When asked about STD they refer you to the free county clinic.

•  When you request information about technology and his answer includes either “Tandy” or “Smith™ Corona.”

Today, at age 50, I Ran My First Marathon

The day I turned 50 is not a day that holds pleasant memories. I didn’t like it. As I wallowed in my self-pity and misery I contemplated several personal goals. One—run a marathon. Yes, I told myself that this would be the year I would take this fat old body and chug it over 26.2 miles. Could I ever do it?

The Emotionally Intelligent Manager

I recently shared with the Accountant at our firm that it might be good if she was in a negative mood while working. While I said this in jest, there was an element of truth behind my remark. I made this comment shortly after reading The Emotionally Intelligent Manager by David R. Caruso & Peter Salovey. Negative moods, I discovered, can be productive—particularly for those who are engaged in deductive reasoning problems, such as checking financial statements for errors. Positive moods, they contend, are more helpful for inductive problem solving where generating new and interesting ideas is needed. According to this line of thought it would be best to be in a positive mood if you are working on a new marketing plan and to be in a negative mood if you are

Worship for Dummies

Like a Georgia Pine in a sea of Dogwoods, Marva J. Dawn’s Reaching Out without Dumbing Down. A Theology of Worship for the Turn-of-the-Century Culture, stands out among the myriads of writings on worship. It tops my list of books on worship.

Knowing how to fit culture into our worship—and not the other way around—is the primary focus of Dawn. Culture cannot be avoided in our worship, and true worship should not elude us because of our culture. Dawn’s concern is that the American Christian’s worship is being “dumbed down” because

Team of Rivals

You have found my Twitter landing page for a book I am currently reading: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Here you will find my thoughts expressed in various tweets that have been birthed from this book. Eventually, this post will

The New Tolerance

Tolerance is a word that is commonly used today to mean something it was never intended to mean. Today, when you hear the word tolerance it most likely is used in the context of acceptance and approval. But this is not what the word was intended to mean.  Staying true to its meaning, to tolerate means to “put up with error.”  Toleration, in its purest sense, refers to the ability to “live with” something we don’t approve. In order to tolerate, we must first disapprove, dislike, or disagree.

I don’t tolerate steak. I tolerate brussell sprouts.

I don’t tolerate chocolate. I tolerate coconut.

I don’t tolerate air conditioning. I tolerate high temperatures and humidity.

I don’t tolerate the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking. I tolerate the smell of cigarettes.

Paul Copan states it well, “We tolerate what we disapprove of or what we believe to be false or erroneous.” If disappointment or dislike didn’t exist then we would not have a need for toleration. To quote Copan again, “It is because real differences exist between people that tolerance become

Talking Trash and Health Care Reform

There is an uproar in Gwinnett County, Georgia. We, as county residents, were informed by letter that there would be changes in how our trash is picked up from our homes. Where previously we could choose our trash hauler, we are now being assigned a trash hauler—based on the zone in which we live. Furthermore, instead of paying the new garbage hauling company directly, the costs of our trash pickup will be added to our property tax statements. “Ouch!” I just received the Notice of Taxes from the Gwinnett County Tax Commissioner.

I, along with most county residents, received the notice of the impending change early last month. A few days later my new rolling trash can was delivered to my driveway. After sitting several weeks on the side of my shed awaiting the predetermined date when my new hauler would begin servicing our family and our neighbors, it has now been placed into service and has functioned in its purpose a couple of times.

The mandated change determining who would be hauling our trash has not been embraced by all county residents. Instead, some have responded with a fervor not seen around Atlanta since Michael Vick’s dog fighting activity was exposed. Why the tumult? Is it because so many of us don’t like the new plan? Or, is it more about the difficulty we often have with change? Answering these questions not only exposes the driving force behind much of the outrage in the county, but it also exposes the reasons why some Americans cannot fathom embracing any significant health care reform.

What’s So Great about Christianity

“It is the little whisper, if we will hear it, that our science even today rests on religious foundations.” Though not a common thread in Christian conversation, this statement is just one example of the author’s assertion that science, philosophy and mathematics are interwoven, and belong, within Christianity.

Supercapitalism Got Me Thinking

I must admit I strayed outside my typical reading boundaries when I picked up Robert B. Reich’s Supercapitalism. I am the richer for it.

Instead of casting blame for the economic maladies of the United States, Reich defines and clarifies the issues that have merged to create the gross inequality of wealth in America. He plainly displays the logical consequences that flow from our everyday decisions to increase profit, ROI, and save a dollar on T-shirts. His concern is that capitalism has triumphed as the expense of