|
3cd83de
|
At Abraham's burial, his two most prominent sons, rivals since before they were born, estranged since childhood, scions of rival nations, come together for the first time since they were rent apart nearly three-quarters of a century earlier. The text reports their union nearly without comment. "His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre, in the field that Abr..
|
|
grief
faith
religion
interfaith
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
d1a5078
|
If you always read books, you'll always be happy.
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
19b6553
|
There is profundity to explore, but also laundry to do.
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
bf97707
|
The higher the joy is not the light, it's the reflection. The greater pleasure is not climbing up; it's handing down
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
3f91ceb
|
Anybody can dream an impossible dream. But only a few find a dream that's possible.
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
bb07fcf
|
One of the things that happens in the world is that people try to conflict. Whereas in the home, you can't. You'll end up getting divorced or becoming estranged from your kids. Keep in mind, the hardest part of any negotiation is agreeing to start it. Once you've gotten past that emotional barrier, the solutions usually present themselves.
|
|
parenting
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
c013234
|
Create a safe zone. Every parent quickly learns that every child--and every adult--handles conflict differently. Some push back when criticized, some turn inward, some break down in tears.
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
24b7e83
|
May your first word be adventure and last word love.
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
98d0140
|
No one aspires to be the person who handles this kind of situation well. And we don't always handle it well.
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
bbf732c
|
In Superman number one, published in 1939, Clark and Lois Lane travel to a thinly disguised Nazi Germany, where Lois ends up in front of a firing squad, until Superman rescues her. In Superman number two, also from 1939, Clark Kent visits faux Germany again and meets Adolphus Runyan, a scientist clearly modeled on Adolf Hitler, who has discovered a gas so powerful "it is capable of penetrating any type of gas-mask." The front cover of Capta..
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
c002441
|
As early as April 1940, Hitler's chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, denounced Superman as a Jew. The weekly SS newspaper lambasted Jerry Siegel as "an intellectually and physically circumcised chap who has his headquarters in New York.... The inventive Israelite named this pleasant guy with an overdeveloped body and an underdeveloped mind 'Superman.'"Goebbels went on, "Woe to the American youth, who must live in such a poisoned atmosphere..
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
63c53f8
|
A recent wave of research shows that children who eat dinner with their families are less likely to drink, smoke, do drugs, get pregnant, commit suicide, and develop eating disorders. Additional research found that children who enjoy family meals have larger vocabularies, better manners, healthier diets, and higher self-esteem.
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
80ae893
|
In his work as a management consultant, Covey often asked his corporate clients to write a one-sentence answer to the question "What is this organization's essential mission or purpose and what is its main strategy to accomplish that?"
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
7a81e83
|
The future Harriet Tubman was born a slave in Dorchester County, Maryland, in 1822. In 1844 she married a free man, John Tubman. Five years later, fearing that she was about to be sold, Tubman tapped into a local network, received two names of safe houses from a white neighbor, and fled north toward Philadelphia. The journey was terrifying and mystical. She navigated using the North Star; she may have followed the drinkiri gourd, a code nam..
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
1337cf7
|
But humans disappoint. Adam, in tasting the fruit, indicates that he prefers Eve to God, so God banishes them.
|
|
god
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
a45ad55
|
Freedom is the right to be free, and then the obligation to accept responsibility. If you don't understand that, then ugly stuff happens. And when you do understand that, you're prepared to meet the obligations straight-on.
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
25e5d81
|
Every story, the moment it's written down, will be reread," she said. "And every rereading will be a reinterpretation. In that sense, there is not an original story and there is not an original message."
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
4277a9d
|
American culture really has two souls. And it's not a question of whether the culture becomes secularized. The culture never becomes one thing or the other. The culture is always two. The culture is always William Bradford and Jonathan Edwards. The culture is always Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison. America was born just in time to have two mentalities. We're like Jacob and Esau struggling in the womb. Secular people want to believe that..
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
0530a44
|
Religion, Gardner continued, gives us eyes to see and ears to hear in ways that science simply cannot. "With our scientific eyes we can distinguish between true and false. With our religious eyes we can distinguish between right and wrong. When we see with our religious eyes, we live in a world of meaning." --
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
9c32728
|
The Exodus scenes were filmed in the sand dunes of Guadalupe, California, and DeMille transported hundreds of Orthodox Jews from New York, because he believed that "in appearance and in their deep feeling of the significance of the Exodus, they would give the best possible performance as the Children of Israel." But on their first day on set, the extras were forced to fast because the commissary served ham for dinner."
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
9ebc9f4
|
Joseph predicted the Exodus, which meant that he knew his descendants would be enslaved by the pharaoh and then freed by God, was the most powerful expression of optimism--and faith--I had ever encountered. It was also, at that moment, an overpowering challenge that I sensed I could no longer continue to avoid. Would I place such credence in a generations-old promise I never actually heard? Could I meet this standard of commitment--to anyth..
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
b5d5cb5
|
The very roots of destruction are in the achievement of success itself.
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
a66036d
|
The King James Bible, which most Pennsylvanians would have been using, describes the central moment as an act of economic liberation: "Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family." But there's a problem with this translation. The Hebrew word der..
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
2aa21c6
|
study, and cleanse
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
5a0654e
|
The Starrs came up with a modified three questions for their family meeting. 1. What things went well in our family this week? 2. What things could we improve in our family? 3. What things will you commit to working on this week?
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
2fed8fb
|
and you will have many opportunities to take in human civilization at its highest levels of achievement. ..approach this experience as a small child might approach a mud puddle. You can lean over and look at yourself in the reflection, maybe stick a finger in it, an cause a little ripple. Or you can dive in, thrash around, and find out what it feels like, what it tastes like... I urge you to jump in. And I look forward to seeing you, back h..
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
415f6cf
|
Their (Council of Dads) wisdom reads like a psalmbook of living: Approach the cow Pack your flip-flops Don't see the wall Tend your tadpoles Live the questions Harvest miracles Always learn to juggle on the side of a hill Take a walk with a turtle
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
2a9e6fd
|
After a few more weeks of equally uninspired gatherings, I called David. "You're focusing on the wrong thing," he said. "The purpose of the meeting is not to talk about each of you as individuals. It's to focus on how you're functioning as a family." He was right. When else did we discuss this most basic thing: how we were a family. We redesigned our questions: 1. What worked well in our family this week? 2. What went wrong in our family th..
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
85708ef
|
By picking their own punishments, children become more internally driven to avoid them. By choosing their own rewards, children become more intrinsically motivated to achieve them. Let your kids take a greater role in raising themselves.
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
a9dc109
|
For centuries, European explorers had set out for new lands without using expressions like pharaoh and promised land, New Covenant and New Israel, Exodus and Moses. By choosing these evocative lyrics, the founders of America introduced the themes of oppression and redemption, anticipation and disenchantment, freedom and law, that would carry through four hundred years of American history. Because of them, the story of Moses became the story..
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
15317ab
|
So if the Civil War was really a war over the meaning of the Bible," I asked, "which side won?" "Neither. The events of the war showed that war is not skywriting from God about the virtue of one side or the other. Rather, the ambiguity of the war was evidence of the ambiguity of the American mission; maybe we're not the chosen people we thought we were. Remember that Lincoln, even in 1861, describes Americans as the 'almost-chosen people.' ..
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |
|
980928d
|
A meta-analysis of sixty-six studies completed in 1992 found that mothers who have more support from grandmothers have less stress and more well-adjusted children. The more involved the grandmothers are, the more involved dads are, too.
|
|
|
Bruce Feiler |