Since making the decision to be non-violent I’ve often had the question come up about what that really looks like. We so lack examples of choosing to be non-violent in the face of a violent world. I’ve wanted to collect stories of non-violence for some time, but I’ve never really made the effort. Here’s one Zach and Keane emailed me recently (and Joanna posted).
Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he …

There is something profoundly spiritual about spending time with close friends.
That’s why I’m concluding this blog post to go spend time with them.
Go find your friends to and tell them their loved.

As a new parent, I recently read the book, Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp at the request of a friend. The following thoughts are a review of the book itself, and should not be seen as a reflection on the parenting techniques espoused or those parents who choose those techniques. I’ll cut right to the chase, the books main premise is that communication and “the rod” (which in this book is translated to mean spanking specifically) are the biblical form of parenting. While I currently don’t plan on …

When I entered middle school my family moved to a house in Madison Wisconsin. It was our house, our walls, inside and out, and with that it began to take shape and look like our family. Somewhere early on, my mom painted some dancing, flowy stick figures of us on the garage door. The house is a purple color (my mom’s favorite) and the stick figures, a deeper purple, adorned the garage door.
I remember being quite embarrassed of this display of art when ever a new person would come …

In an attempt to keep up with the latest news, events, and blogosphere happenings, I’ve put the rss reader on hold and am asking for personal recommendations. I found this cool auto-linking code, so you can posts suggested readings right to my blog post.
Feel free to recommend something you’ve written yourself, or something you read elsewhere. Assuming your a long time reader you already know what I’m interested in and what I might find thought provoking, but feel free to recommend something that challenges things I’ve written in the …

I wrote a segment a while back about ‘Corporate Responsibility’ highlighting corporations that I felt where doing a responsible job at their business, and thus, were worth shopping at. Since then, I now do a monthly Corporate Responsibility segment on a world-famous podcast. It’s important to have a chance to educate others on where to shop, because so often the excuse for not buying responsibly is a plea of ignorance.
However, even after you get educated about ‘fair trade’, ‘eco-friendly’, socially responsible options, you still have to make a decision and …

Figure I should just post some good videos I’ve watched recently.
Why We Fight is phenomenal. It really makes you angry, or at least should raise some questions if your pro-war. Below is the trailer:

Somebody put the entire movie up in multiple segments on youtube. You can find it here.
Who Killed The Electric Car? is also a very interesting documentary. It definitely raises some questions about why we aren’t farther along then we should be as it relates to more sustainable transportation. Trailer below:

And the best way to get …

The habit of sitting down and writing every day is a good habit to be in. It’s also a good habit to read every day. Both are positive things, and I think in a large degree can be positive no matter how you go about them. If you just read Sports Illustrated and just write on your friends facebook wall, that is better then nothing at all. However, if you really want to be intentional about those skills keeping you sharp, educated and continually thinking, it’s good to refine them …