By the time Katie posts this, I will be just days shy of fifty years of age. Like many of you, I’m sure, people have always asked me the standard birthday question: Do you feel different now that you’re X? I’ve been feeling different about this birthday for a long while.

Half a century. My paternal grandmother is thriving at the one century mark as I write this. She makes me wonder what I want my next fifty years to be about. I’ve been dreaming about it, daydreaming about it, brainstorming about it, wondering about it.   Read more...

If so, do look at this MSC in Responsibility and Business Practice at the University of Bath, UK.

This course addresses the challenges currently facing society as we seek to integrate successful business practice with a concern for social, environmental and ethical issues. It looks at the complex relationship between business decisions and their impact on local and world communities and economies, on the environment and on the workplace itself. Participants will develop management practices which are responsive to pressures for greater awareness in these areas. The course offers a wide range of alternative perspectives on business, all of which challenge ideas about where "responsibility" begins and ends. Participants will learn about management techniques and approaches being developed in leading-edge organizations, and will test the relevance of these ideas and practices in their own workplaces.   Read more...

Journalists this week didn’t even know whether to call the country Myanmar or Burma. Tens of thousands of citizens and monks rose up at last in response to the SLORC, the State Law and Order Restoration Council, the military regime that has been in charge of that country for decades, to demand the establishment of the democracy they voted for.   Read more...

I went to a university in a state that was populated by mostly Italian Americans and Jewish Americans. I myself come from a WASP background, so was delighted to be immersed in the abundance of life surrounding me in those college years. Of course, I made many friends, of both persuasions, and loved every second of our times together.   Read more...

Is anybody else dismayed at the United States Senate and their voted censure of MoveOn.org’s ad about General David Petraeus and how the White House used him to foment a political (not military) strategy? Followed quickly by yet another fruitless vote to end the war in Iraq?   Read more...

Japanese are known to be workaholics, but they also know how to maintain a balance in life. One way is by an abundance of national holidays. In fact, there is at least one every month. These special days allow for honoring something of value, and also for much needed rest. In September every year there is

There is no greater disaster
Than enemy-making
For then you lose your treasure,
your peace.

Tao Te Ching, 69

The Tao Te Ching fascinates me. I have four translations of it in my library. Each of them takes today’s text into a different place. One mentions peace by name—the anonymous translation above. The others focus on enemy-making.   Read more...

Four months back, I created my own job description and called myself an “Initiator & Facilitator of Change Networks”. I left Amsterdam 3 months ago to start practicing and earning money in that role.   Read more...

The long-awaited report from General David Petraeus on the ground in Iraq is due in the U.S. capital this week. Does anyone else hear his name as Betray Us?

I don’t think that’s his intent. I think General Petraeus wants to tell the world the truth about the surge strategy in Iraq. He may not be allowed to do so. In recent weeks, much has been made of White House speechwriters tackling the General’s report to make it fit for public consumption. The truth doesn’t need spin-doctors.   Read more...

With the heat of the approaching summer comes an array of déja-vu-like experiences that bring me back to my previous summer in South Africa. The heat seems to intensify everything—including the way my life here smells.

The mornings are still fairly cool. Now that I sleep with my windows open, the early air is fresh, as if it, too, spent a night resting. With only leaves shifting in the dark breeze, the air smells like it has been infused with their stability and calm.   Read more...