Quick, without over-thinking it … Is God male or female? What color is God? What is God like in terms of personality? Have you ever asked anyone who is not your gender, race, or religion what their concept of God is? If you are like most Christians in the United States, you grew up with this concept of God: God is the stern, white, old guy on the right, using his finger to spark the…
Working in the field of public history, one cannot escape hearing about Jane Jacobs eventually. She was a journalist who ended up in the field of architecture, becoming an outspoken advocate for sane development that is more adapted to humans than cars. The book most mentioned within the Jane Jacobs canon is “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.” I have never read it, but a tweet (by Richard Florida, I believe) led me to Jane…
While I was at the Twin Cities Book Festival, I picked up a few books at the used book sale. “The Plenitude: Creativity, Innovation, and Making Stuff” by Rich Gold was one of those books. It’s a slim volume, so it only took a couple of days to read. It expressed in written form a number of ideas I’ve had about being a creator in a world of too much stuff. Rich Gold was an…
I read an article from the St. Paul Pioneer Press via the Brainerd Dispatch recently that I’m feeling the need to talk back to. The article is called “Antiques dealers find industry lagging, numbers shrinking – hope for eventual renaissance.” It quotes a number of people in the industry discussing how antiques stores are going out of business and making comments about how young people just aren’t interested in old things anymore. One says the…
If the current election season teaches us nothing else, it’s gob-smackingly obvious that we need to revamp our election system. With a polarized electorate caused by having only two major political parties and a wholly unqualified presidential candidate running on behalf of one of those parties, Dr. Phil’s perennial question comes to mind: “How’s that workin’ for you?” It ain’t working for us, Dr. Phil. It’s ain’t working. We’re feeling disenfranchised, disconnected from the political…