Good and Terrible Depths

I pulled this quote from the New York Times in my morning reading. For not entirely explainable reasons a quote from the work of Friedrich Nietzsche struck me as very important for us all in this era of image. UmaSofia Srivastava, now former Miss Teen USA from New Jersey in her letter of resignation to…

David Brooks quotes Howard Thurman in his New York Times piece (5/10/24 How to Create a Society That Prizes Decency. The article so precisely illuminates the importance of starting your considerations for future actions or expressions from within. And that is what The Good Decision project is all about. Brooks writes: Thurman emphasizes that Jesus…

Real change can be traumatic.  Change will always be work.  Anyone who has ever oared a river raft has had a crash course in this thing called change.  The peaceful river can put one to sleep, but in a couple of heart beats the river’s course can drop in altitude doubling your speed and momentum…

In this last month, I have traveled through many of the towns in which I have lived over the course of my life thus far. In this journey I have had coffee and conversations with many old friends and delivered a eulogy for one who has passed. A couple of themes emerged as I made…

There is a frank and direct discomfort, if not pain, in any action one takes that generates moral dissonance within one’s considerations. When you cross grain what you believe to be good you will feel the ‘soul scratch’. I frequently hear about people going to polls ‘holding their noses’ before they vote. Invariably this means…

Is “good” pleasant? The short answer for The Good Decision discipline is “no”. “Is integrity easy” might be the more appropriate question and the answer is also more obvious: no, integrity is not easy. The Good Decision will never sell itself to the world as the easy way to manage the profound difficulties of creating…

When it comes to the word good, I have long come to the conclusion that cruelty is never good. The enjoyment and mastery of cruelty in ones language and actions is a fatal flaw in the human character. As we face the election season we need to keep this in mind for our leaders. The…

Poetry can take us to places that political and analytical language cannot. Some language slips through the screens of culture, gender, religion, nation, patriotism, vengeance and justice and simply speaks the hard planked heart language of mother, father, elder, infant and mentor. Here is an example of such language by a poet named Naomi Shihab…

For me this project is an effort to rescue good from its relatives nice and kind. Nice is the form of manners that avoids conflict through the use of faint praise. “Nice car!” one might say to the friend who bought a shiny something or other, but all new cars look nice so you can…

I have taken a break from my postings as of late to gather perspective. The Good Decision as a project needs to better communicate something that is critical to the times we are in. Thus far, while the focus has sharpened, this projects efforts are falling short in terms meeting today’s needs. The Four Pauses…