On October 14, 1927, just a month after the U.S. Air Force was created as a separate service, test pilot Chuck Yeager officially exceeded the speed of sound in level flight in a Bell X-1 aircraft. An incredible accomplishment! Previous attempts had been stymied by a buffeting and a loss of control as the aircraft …
Continue reading Faster than a Speeding Bullet – The Key to Accomplishment
Whether or not you are religiously inclined, the statement purportedly spoken 2,000 years ago by a man whose worldview spawned a number of organized religions including Christianity - "Judge not that ye be not judged" - is worthy of deep consideration. Judgment, the arch-rival of empathy, is an insidious and pernicious human invention. The millennium-and-a-half …
Yesterday I touched very briefly on the matter of empathy and I would like to take a short walk with you down that road to discover the influence this fundamental human capacity has on your life and the world at large. Recent discoveries in the fields of neuropsychology, brain science and childhood development show that …
"I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better." ~Plutarch Sympathy is the death knell of a good friendship. Empathy, on the other hand, is a restorative balm that heals life's cuts and scrapes. Sympathy says to another "you are right to …
Continue reading An Ode to my Friends on a Hot Summer’s Morn’
"Don't let yesterday use up too much of today." ~ Will Rogers It was getting late and the conversations in German, French, English and Spanish were starting to wear on my already tired brain. The year was 1993 and I had just completed a bicycle tour around Bavaria with a friend of mine, Charlie (the …
Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, recently gave a graduation address at his alma mater, Princeton University. He made the case that our character is defined not by the gifts we're born with, but by the choices we make as we move through life. Each of us is endowed with a unique combination of …
An old friend of mine mentioned that she is moving in a couple of weeks and that a friend of hers was going to accompany her in true "Thelma and Louise" style. I don't remember much about the 1991 movie starring Susan Sarandon (Louise Sawyer) and Geena Davis (Thelma), apart from a poignant quote by …
“The heights by great men reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.” ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A friend of mine sent this lovely quote to me yesterday morning. It filled me with a deep sense of appreciation for those who have dedicated …
I was disappointed yesterday to read in our local paper that only 28.3% of registered voters took the time to vote in yesterday's primary election. The article entitled "Apathy defeats anger in primary election" went on to note that only 14.82% of voters turned out for the 2008 Presidential primary election! The percentages border on embarrassing. …
So often in life we are forced to verify things heard, seen or received second or third-hand. Imagine this scenario. You heard a rumor, a story or a passing remark about something or someone you are responsible for and you find it necessary to investigate a little further. You learned from previously bungled experiences that …
Gregory Hake 