“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was […]

You cannot lead from behind. Ask Google about “leading from behind;” get ready to sort through 2.5 billion results. Is it possible? The idea isn’t revolutionary: the word picture provides more-than-adequate portrayal of the posture. Spot the crowd; see where it’s headed and then send suggestions to the front – from the rear – about what

Most of us spend our days, lost in the micro… and blind to the macro. In baseball, there is a strategy called small ball. The idea: lacking any home-run hitters, the team relies on getting runners to first base. A steady flow of successes – without “outs” to interrupt the plan to load the bases – should force runs across

Texans call it “all hat, and no cattle.” It’s colorful; it’s descriptive, and it’s going on, constantly. You know it when you see it: someone claims to be something their performance does not confirm. Their rhetoric isn’t matched by their results; their claims fall short of their conduct; they pretend… but, they don’t produce. Look around. How

He was the greatest man ever born. If that was a grand-prize game show question – on Christian television – you would come up with the answer… and you would be wrong. “Jesus!” you say. Good guess… but, wrong. “Says who?” you ask. “Says Jesus!” I reply. If you’d like to debate him on that point, have at it. “Truly

So, what do you want to be when you grow up? Every generation has answered the question based on very sketchy data. My claim: little boys have stayed pretty consistent: policeman, fireman or athlete. The available options aren’t very apparent when you’re under-10; the approved list of professionals isn’t deep at that age. Life gets complicated, quickly; little

Begin with the end in mind. Stephen Covey was 57 when he bundled sage advice into the iconic book that would become his defining work: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Tucked between Be Proactive (Habit #1) and Put First Things First (Habit #3), Begin with the End in Mind advises against aimless activity: if you don’t have the picture of

Some nouns don’t do much to depict detail; they cover a broad range of different versions under the same generalization. Example: car. My first had four wheels and an engine, but my ’63 Plymouth had little in common with my modern Lexus, or with the myriad of gas or electric machines in today’s showrooms. Say church, and you

Just four weeks ago, David Leonhardt wrote in the New York Times: “The war in Afghanistan – which ended yesterday, as the final U.S. troops left – lasted 19 years and 47 weeks, dating to the first bombing of the Taliban on Oct. 7, 2001. It is America’s longest war, far longer than the country’s great

This is either the height of arrogance, or the wisdom of simplicity. In the course of four page-long installments, we’ve purported to address the essence of life, in order of priority. Do these things, and everything else you do in life will come under one or more of these headers. Miss these things – any