Category: Choice

  • Bias By Us: How Our Unconscious Programs Us to Harm the Other

    Bias By Us: How Our Unconscious Programs Us to Harm the Other

    Black, White, or Other? “Pedro, Pedro, go back to Mexico.” “Pedro, Pedro, go back to Mexico.” “Pedro, Pedro, go back to Mexico.” Being Black and growing up in the South—between Virginia and Mississippi—with a name like Pedro Senhorinha Ramos Montero Silva brought in many unwelcomed experiences in my life. One of which was the othering…

  • Artists Turn Chaos Into Culture

    Artists Turn Chaos Into Culture

    When I was six years old my mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told her I wanted paint, a canvas, and an easel because I wanted to be an artist. Her response was that artists don’t make money. Instead she bought me a typewriter and told me I was going to…

  • Conversation  Catalyst or Conversation Coward?

    Conversation Catalyst or Conversation Coward?

    Usually I write poems or long blogs to express my thoughts. This time I drew a picture. The point of the picture—if it’s not obvious—is that I think we are at a critical moment in the world when we can choose to be #ConversationCatalysts and foster a #CollaborativeCulture or we can be #ConversationCowards and devolve…

  • A Friend in Need

    A Friend in Need

    They say a friend in need is a friend indeedOr is it a friend in deedMeaning a friend is one who acts as oneWhen another friend’s in need Or maybe it’s the former oneWe’re friends when we’re in wantBut otherwise we give no others thoughtJust to make it blunt But perhaps it is more gray…

  • How 8 Thou Art (Reflections on My Enneagram#)

    How 8 Thou Art (Reflections on My Enneagram#)

    For about 6 years now, I have known that I am a type 8 on the Enneagram, what is often referred to as the Challenger/Protector. Even before I had a name and a number to describe some aspects of how I show up in the world, I was aware of many of the dimensions of…

  • Transforming Purpose

    Transforming Purpose

    Years ago a friend told me that he was sad because he didn’t know his life’s purpose. For some reason, I had never thought about that concept before. And so, because I didn’t know how to take what he was saying seriously, I insensitively reacted with laughter. This upset him, which only made me laugh…

  • Powerful Beyond Measure – Part 1

    Powerful Beyond Measure – Part 1

    I remember when I first received the email. I was sitting in my cubicle—a place that didn’t reflect my inner life. I don’t remember who the email was from. But, it was one of those inspirational emails that starts off lifting your spirits and then lets you down by saying that you have to send…

  • There is No Competition

    There is No Competition

    I might be going through a midlife crisis (MLC). A word that etymologically means, “the point at which change must come, for better or worse.” I remember that whenever I heard about MLCs growing up, I thought that whatever it was, it would never happen to me because the way MLCs are typically characterized, it…

  • Choose Your Thoughts or They’ll Choose You

    Choose Your Thoughts or They’ll Choose You

    Ever since I heard the Kanye TMZ interview and listened to Kanye’s two new songs, I have been watching the thoughts that arise in my consciousness around the points that I think he thinks he is trying to make. Of course, you can’t make sense out of nonsense. That is the Roofless Church’s Cardinal Insight.…

  • The Choice for Choice

    The other day I came across an email from 2008 that I sent to a group of friends at the dawn of the election of President Obama. On the surface, this might seem like a political email, but from my perspective, it is an appeal to people to seek consciousness in the choices we are…