Tag Archives: culture

Family teepee project: Too many chiefs; not enough Indians

By Steve | Published: July 11, 2010
I love my family, for all its weirdness. My aunt plans to live in a teepee in the badlands on the Colorado-Utah border, so of course the family got together to build it. We didn’t know what we were doing, but we had an instruction book and lots  of opinions. The canvas fit the tangle [...]
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Story of the week: How to defeat willpower

By Steve | Published: January 28, 2010
WNYC’s Radiolab created the most intriguing audio science story I’ve ever heard. Aired this week on NPR’s Morning Edition, two narrators play off each other to lure you through the back story that sets up the report on an astonishing experiment. A marketing professor had a set of subjects memorize a 2-digit number and another [...]
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Three narratives told on Yoga Day

By Steve | Published: January 23, 2010
The Magician’s story In town only four days, she serendipitously had met the hostess of the Yoga Day USA open house just hours before. Now she stood in the suburban basement, surrounded by strangers sitting cross-legged on mats, and talked about her lineage. She is a descendant of ancient Jewish high priests and of Dakota [...]
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A book for resolve: Change or Die

By Steve | Published: January 1, 2010
Change or Die by Alan Deutschman was referred to me by a physician who is using its ideas to help her patients make life changes (thanks, Deb). It was an ideal read to usher in a new year, a new decade and a new phase in my career. Many of the change ideas were familiar to [...]
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Poet brings vision statement to life

By Steve | Published: December 23, 2009
Tears of pride welled up yesterday as I watched a corporate video. A corporate video! Diane Gage-Lofgren, our national VP of communications and PR, had asked a poet/performance artist  to bring life to our communication team’s new vision statement. A stroke of genius. I will forever have a visual and resonant image to add soul [...]
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How much time is left to civilization?

By Steve | Published: October 16, 2009
What was going through that Easter Islander’s mind when he cut down the last palm tree, sealing his people’s doom? Was the last Viking to die in Greenland a wealthy man or a peasant who stormed his farm to butcher his last cow? Jared Diamond excels at putting human flesh on the archaeological bones left [...]
Posted in Book reviews, Excellent stories, Opinion | Also tagged , , , | 1 Comment

My responsibility as a white guy

By Steve | Published: October 14, 2009
A sharp Metro State College student asked me about my earlier post on racism during my guest lecture yesterday. He seemed to get the gist of  my story, but I could tell he was confused. I think I was too cute in that post, and I liked my answer I gave him better: As a [...]
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Why white guys hate to be called racists

By Steve | Published: October 3, 2009
Why shouldn’t you call us white guys racist? Because that’s name-calling and in “post-racial” America we should be neo-mature. Besides, we white males don’t have to be racists to help perpetuate inequality. We can do that by being unaware and/or uncaring about what it’s like to live in the U.S. when you are not white [...]
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A five-man team in a six-man league

By Steve | Published: September 26, 2009
Driving to work Friday morning, I was pulled into a story that unfolded on Colorado Public Radio. Five Arickaree High School boys talked about the decision they had to make when the school’s tiny student body did not yield enough boys to field a six-man football team. They decided to stick together and play with [...]
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Proud that he’s an American

By Steve | Published: September 12, 2009
I am asking my relatives to donate to the Central Asia Institute in lieu of birthday and Christmas gifts this year. I figure every dollar that goes to Greg Mortenson’s project to educate Muslim girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan undoes the damage of at least 1,000 military dollars. Mortenson discovered the root of extremism — [...]
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