Month: August 1999

Learning To See

In his book An Anthropologist on Mars, Oliver Sacks tells about a man named Virgil. Blind from early childhood, Virgil underwent surgery decades later and regained the ability to see.

A Web Of Relationships

Several years ago, a Harvard Business School professor wrote an open letter to the nation's graduates. He told them that in one sense they needed to forget what they had learned in school. He said that schools tend to put too much emphasis on the idea that success comes as a result of passing tests and is based on individual performance rather than on group effort and cooperation. The professor pointed out, though, that in the workplace doing well depends largely on learning to succeed in what he called a "web of relationships."

The Garden

Imagine the beauty of fields where the tassels of dark green corn and heads of golden wheat wave gently in the breeze. Or picture in your mind gardens where magnolias bloom, roses spill out their perfume, and pansies lift their faces toward the sun.

A Vanishing Vapor

Evangelist D. L. Moody told a story about a minister who was preparing a sermon on the urgency of receiving Christ without delay. After studying for some time, the preacher fell asleep in his chair and had a strange dream in which he overheard a conversation among several demons. They were huddled together, trying to devise a scheme for leading people on earth into hell.

Winning Big

Tennis champion Hana Mandlikova was once asked how she felt about defeating great players like Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert Lloyd. She responded, "Any big win means that all the suffering, practicing, and traveling are worth it. I feel like I own the world." When asked how long that feeling lasts, she replied, "About 2 minutes."

Daisy Chains

I was an adult when I made my first daisy chain. Seated in a meadow with a friend, we crafted delicate necklaces by joining daisies together. It was so absorbing that we momentarily forgot about life's pressing needs. Afterward, however, those needs were still there, urgent as ever.

The Man On The Cross

In today's anything-goes world, it should be no surprise that there's a group called Atheists for Jesus. They claim to believe in Jesus' moral teachings but not what He said about God.

Walk Of Faith

Constructed to give people the illusion of walking on air, "The Walk of Faith" is a platform of laminated glass at the top of a 385-foot tower in Blackpool, England. An Associated Press photo showed a woman at the edge of the invisible walkway, fists clenched against her face, trying to summon the courage to take a step. She had been told the platform was safe, but she was still afraid.

INDNJC

Latin is a dead language for most people. Yet not too long ago it was taught as an elective in many of our secondary schools. I recall my own struggles to read Caesar and Cicero. But now it's rare to find anyone, except some members of the clergy, who has studied that ancient tongue. At best we can understand a few of the phrases that are still in common use like anno Domini (abbreviated as AD), "in the year of the Lord."