The King’s Green Pad

As virtuous souls swelter in heat and humidity, their friends encourage them to turn on the air-conditioning. Having just spent a week in DC, I can testify to the temptation! While considered moderate for August in the DC area, the temperature was still 33 degrees C and the humidity 75%, which according to a humidex [...]

In the later 1950s, psychologist Harry Harlow conducted a famous series of experiments with rhesus monkeys that showed that well-being requires a secure and loving home base. Monkeys reared with an uncomfortable wire substitute ‘mother’ that provided only nourishment were paralyzed by fear, unable to interact with other monkeys or their environment. Those reared with [...]

Mahatma Gandhi is one of my heroes and role models. One of my favorite quotes is attributed to him: “You must BE the change you wish to see in the world.” He certainly lived what he believed, and in so doing, changed the world. I’ve always wanted to make a difference, yet despaired. The world [...]

Mowing the back lawn today, I repeatedly bumped the low-hanging branches of our enormous mayday tree, gaining a frost of spent mayday blossoms. My spouse came over to brush them from my hair, stopped, looked more closely, then said, “This is so neat—you have hundreds of grey hairs!” My first thought: Not neat! This is [...]

After a long day of living the academic life of the mind, I returned to my garden. Idyllic, it was not. Sweat ran off my face, dirt ground in uncomfortable crumbs under my feet, ants crawled and prickled up my legs, and the soil was hard to turn. After two hours of labor I managed [...]

How gratifying to see the spread of concern for ‘the environment’ in our culture.  Everyone seems to be trying to ‘green’ their lifestyle, companies are providing ‘green’ products and altering their environmental practices, and governments are creating policies to encourage environmental care.  These are great places to start! However, voices from many religious traditions and [...]

Part III Part II Part I Environmental problems are big—really big. It’s hard to imagine how the actions of a single individual can really make a difference. Environmental problems are also complicated. They are unlike oral hygiene, where the problem (gum disease and rotting teeth) and the solution (brushing and flossing) are clear, easy to [...]

CLICK HERE for Part I CLICK HERE for Part II Hope might trump fear when it comes to motivating people to change their behaviour. But sometimes we really should be afraid because there is a real threat. If you are lucky enough to have a high standard of living, feeling safe and comfortable in the [...]

For part one CLICK HERE. An old psychological study published in the 1950s involved two groups of people who wanted to learn to brush and floss their teeth daily. One group put nasty pictures of teeth riddled with gum disease on their bathroom mirror: fear motivation. The message was: “If you don’t do this, your [...]

I don’t like feeling anxious, let alone terrified. I find it comforting to read, over and over again in Scripture the phrase, “Do not be afraid”. We indeed should trust that the universe is ultimately in God’s good hands. And yet fear is a basic emotion given to God’s creatures for a reason. It can [...]