"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," -- that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." ~ Aristotle David Brooks does it again with his thought-provoking summary of edge.org's "The Edge Question 2011." The event organizers asked participants: "What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?"and what came back was fascinating. According …
Author: Gregory Hake
Son. Husband. Father. Thinker. Doer.
What the internet is doing to our brains…
I stumbled upon an old article in The Atlantic written by Nicholas Carr called "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The author points to the fact that various inventions over time have not only changed the way we communicate, they have also altered the way we think. The inventions of writing, the printing press and now …
Ancient Gladness
Awake, thou wintry earth - Fling off thy sadness! Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth Your ancient gladness! ~ Thomas Blackburn I am bewitched by the transformative spirit of spring this year and cannot help but behold the changes I see at every turn with reverence and delight. The seasonal metamorphoses in the natural world - …
Reunion
Last evening I had the rare pleasure of being reunited with an old and dear friend from my university years. Our friendship was forged not just at school, in fact he and a few friends and I went on a volunteer vacation in West Virginia where we spent our holiday renovating a poverty-stricken neighborhood. We …
And Spring Arose
My brother-in-law and I spent the better part of yesterday morning clearing a dam that had formed in the drain that separates our upper pond from the pond below. The dam, likely the product of an ambitious beaver, blocked both the front of the drain and the middle of the 25 foot long corrugated pipe …
Your Tomorrows
"Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?" ~ Benjamin Franklin How successful have you been at employing your talents in relation to your friends, family, associates and beyond? No matter what you have or haven't done in your life, what you've completed or left undone, you still …
Polished to Perfection
"A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials." - Seneca While I am not so sure that our trials in life are deliberately imposed upon us as a test of our character or will intentionally by another being or entity, I have witnessed time and time again that the mechanism …
The Child of Liberalism
Anyone interested in what shaped the United States' founding generation's views on human nature, virtue and purpose ought to read Carl J. Richard's The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome and the American Enlightenment. Richard's comprehensive study of the founders' classical reading provides a clear and useful reference point to square back to when confronting …
Problem Solving 101
"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." ~ Albert Einstein My riding lessons are a constant source of inspiration and realization for me and I've found that lesson learned in the ring translate into valuable principles for more effective living. The most recent realization came as a …
True to Yourself
"I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong." ~ Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass, the social reformer, writer, statesman and former slave was known for his oratory eloquence and his faithfulness to the cause of equal rights for women and African Americans. He lived in a tumultuous era and spent …
Gregory Hake 