nathan-dumlao-EPpmQg24Ipk-C-unsplash.jpg When I was in first grade, there was an air horn signal that the principal in my elementary school would periodically sound in the hallways for practice. When the classes heard the horn, we were to stop what we were doing, climb under our desks, and fold our arms on top of our head. This was the signal that we were under a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. I doubt any of this would have been effective in the event of a real nuclear

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash Transcendentalism was a Unitarian movement that began in the 1830s and lasted until just prior to the Civil War in 1860 or so. But, before we explore Transcendentalism, we have to understand the rise of the Unitarian movement. To do this we have to go back to the early part of the 18th century. The 1740s in America was a time historians call “The Great Awakening.” Itinerant ministers around the country, and particularly in New England, began tra

tobias-bjerknes-IwHtZIVYrXE-unsplash.jpg Have you ever heard two people arguing about the same thing they saw? Each person claims to be telling the truth, and they say the other person is wrong, or they are just making things up. Well, maybe one person is making something up, or maybe they didn’t see clearly what was happening. But in many cases, both people are telling the truth. Just consider what happens when multiple people observe a crime taking place. When police interv

Photo by NASA on Unsplash Whether or not we realize it, most of us, and most people in the whole world live their lives in a very small bubble. We focus on ourselves, on our work, on our families, on our friends and sometimes on our community. Some people expand their world to include their country, and sometimes they even pay attention to what is happening around the world. Living in this small bubble is not a bad thing. It is totally human to do this. It is built into our b

Photo by Tino Rischawy on Unsplash I want to talk today about something that, I believe, is very important every day, but so many people forget, and this is the importance of kindness. My granddaughter Lucy is here today, and I don’t want her to accuse me of being boring, so I am going to start with a short story that makes the point. The Hummingbird’s Gift High in the branches of the Great Oak lived Pip, a tiny hummingbird with a very big heart. While the other hummingbirds