The Great Growing Up Blog Artciles

The other day I got another lesson in the value of rebooting electronics. Originally I thought rebooting was just for computers but as I continue to learn about technology, all electronic gadgetry seems to benefit from an occasional reboot. Most recently, when my new Internet phone stopped working suddenly I was ready to call tech […]

Author note: I rarely write self-referentially but I am making any exception here to share a process I went through in the last couple of weeks.] In mid-May I was informed that my most recent book – The Great Growing Up – was the winner of the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Current […]

American social scientist Willis Harman addresses the issue of legitimacy and its role in major social changes, and further explains the enormous power we yield as members of the society that bestows this legitimacy. He writes: “Some of these changes have amounted to profound transforma­tions—for instance the transition from the Roman Empire to Medi­eval Europe, […]

Have you ever been intrigued or bemused by someone having the thrill of a lifetime when experiencing something that to you seemed like nothing special? If so and you can recall the situation you will likely recognize that what seemed ordinary to you was an event that might have stayed with them for the rest […]

[This post is an excerpt from Chapter One in The Great Growing Up book] Some years back, before voicemail, a friend of mine recorded a memorable message on his answering machine. As I recall, it went something like this: “Hi, this is Gary. At the sound of the beep please tell me who you are […]

In writing The Great Growing Up, I had originally included lots of material that had to be cut for the final print version, including a rant on partisanship and the concerns expressed by George Washington about how it could ruin our nation. Washington was clear there needed to be more than one political party, despite […]

Given all the crises we have in this world, I constantly look for the leverage points, those crises that may have more influence – and thereby deserve more of our attention – in the cascade of challenges and problems facing humanity today. In November, here in this blog, I wrote about the “Crisis of Courage.” […]

A habit I picked up some years ago was to be more aware of words I was using and make distinctions where many may not. For instance, there is what I know versus what I believe to be true. One is a belief; the other is a knowing – a knowledge that is pure wisdom, […]

Do you wonder why things are so mediocre today? Do you wonder why our leaders seem to be playing it safe, unwilling to risk, stick their necks out, or take a chance based on principle? Is this a crisis of courage or what some might call a lack of bravery? Indigenous cultures have long talked […]

Essential to Transcending Our Immaturity As many of my friends know, I am a big advocate of collaboration and believe that the only way we humans can transcend our immaturity as a species and grow up collectively is through collaboration. I do not mean by trivial cooperative acts like sharing knowledge with one another or […]