by Mark Beckwith | Dec 27, 2022 | Uncategorized
In 2009 journalist Bill Bishop wrote a compelling book, The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart. He makes the case that over the past several decades people have been living, working, worshipping, recreating, and vacationing in...
by Mark Beckwith | Dec 21, 2022 | Uncategorized
When we get scared, we seek protection. And so many of us are scared – of increasing violence, of a precarious democracy, of growing polarization, of progressing climate change. And on and on – a veritable cascade of fear. One mode of protection for many, at least...
by Mark Beckwith | Dec 13, 2022 | Uncategorized
The people who walked in darkness… This past week I met many people who regularly walk in darkness. I attended a two-day Gun violence prevention summit in Washington DC. There were some two hundred of us from all over the country – advocates, policy shapers,...
by Mark Beckwith | Dec 5, 2022 | Uncategorized
With a gentle smile and a calm demeanor, the Japanese Zen priest spoke to his largely Western sitting group – in English: “Westerners seem to bring an extra challenge when engaged in meditation. When the dust appears – as it inevitably does in the form of...
by Mark Beckwith | Nov 28, 2022 | Uncategorized
America is awash in guns. With a little over 4 percent of the world’s population, Americans own 42 percent of the world’s guns. Gun purchases across the country have skyrocketed. Restrictions on the carrying and permitting of firearms have eased in many states;...
