John O’Donohue, Anam Cara. It has been ten years since the premature loss of Irish poet and author John O’Donohue at the age of 52. The Guardian eulogized that his passing “robs the world of a genuinely original religious mind.” Consolingly perhaps, just as speaking transcends space, writing transcends time. So although the absence of this gifted man is a…
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. In the classical world, long before modern psychotherapeutic care made the health benefits of journaling widely known, the well educated may have been taught to do the same. Advice from the Greek philosopher and Stoic, Epictetus (55-135 CE), suggests writing as a tool for moral development and the nurturing of constancy in the face of the unpredictable. A student…
Cicero, On Living and Dying Well. In the last decades of the Roman Republic, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE), statesman, lawyer, and esteemed orator, was engaged with a social and political world in crisis. Reflecting on the challenges of living and dying well, he penned On Duties to his son Marcus studying in Athens, for an uncertain future that lay before him. Central to…
Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love. Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855), philosopher, theologian, poet and critic, is known as the father of existentialism. Still widely read today, any well-managed bookstore would be amiss without a copy of Fear and Trembling or The Sickness Unto Death sitting somewhere on a shelf. As is often the case with the output of a prolific and influential author, we may…
Tomas Sedlacek on Economic Meaning. A bit of an amateur investor, I am fascinated by the amount of energy, intelligence, and the sheer volume of money that operates within the financial markets daily. Our capitalist system truly is a miracle of both ingenuity and discovery, seeing that the principles upon which it is based can be said to have been…
Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run, the autobiography. What might have become arguably one of the great “wisdom” traditions of our time, the music of Bruce Springsteen has been a source of comfort for millions since he stepped into the spotlight in 1973 with his debut release, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. It was his third record, Born to Run, however,…
Kenneth Ring and The Near-death Experience. In Lessons from the Light; What We Can Learn from the Near-death Experience, Dr. Kenneth Ring, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Connecticut, escorts us through the mysterious world of death, or more precisely near-death, to learn the lessons about life such a journey has to teach. Like Virgil in Dante’s Divine Comedy, Dr.…
Order One’s Life, Imagine an Inspiring Future. There is “a strong link” writes Chris Lowney in Heroic Leadership, “between mature self-knowledge and success.” At a time when many are looking for leaders capable of solving problems in a rapidly changing business and political environment, brought about by the unstoppable pace of technological change, “shrewd, pragmatic, politically astute action” requires individuals with…
What Leaders Do, Growing a Personal Leadership Legacy. In Heroic Leadership, Best Practices from a 450-year-old Company that Changed the World, former Jesuit and J.P. Morgan Managing Director, Chris Lowney, gets straight to the heart of what it means to be a leader. Drawing wisdom from the Jesuit spiritual tradition, he says, “If all leadership is first self-leadership that springs from…
Martin Buber, On Judaism. One of the great intellectuals and religious thinkers of the 20th century, Martin Buber, best known for his work, “I and Thou,” said: “When I was a child I read on old Jewish tale I could not understand. It said no more than this: “Outside the gates of Rome there sits a leprous beggar, waiting. He…