Director’s Corner

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”  - Winston Churchill People in the United States only spend about 10% of our time outside of buildings.  To me that is a rather shocking statistic.  We may not give that much thought, but as Churchill observed buildings have an enormous impact…

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”    Maya Angelou I love Maya Angelou’s description of a successful life: not just surviving but thriving; with passion, compassion, humor, and style.  Our vocation,…

“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” The ghost of Jacob Marley, speaking to Ebenezer Scrooge ― Charles Dickens, A Christmas…

“Climate change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved.  It deserves to be a huge priority.”  Bill Gates In many ways, climate change, global warming, anthropogenic climate disruption – whatever you want to call it – is old news.  Old news in that the science has…

“We’ve all but forgotten that public participation is the very soul of democratic citizenship, and that it can profoundly enrich our lives.”  Paul Rogat Loeb, Soul of a Citizen The future of our nation and the planet we inhabit depends on our willingness to more fully exercise our rights and…

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”  Theodore Roosevelt Climate change.  The Zika virus.  Terrorism.  These are complex global issues.  As individuals it can seem like there is not much we can do about them.  Actually, there are things we can do like informing ourselves, changing…

“One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find…

“There comes a pause, for human strength will not endure to dance without cessation;”  -- Lewis Carroll It’s hard to believe the fall and spring terms of the 2016-2017 academic year are over.  The impression I get from everyone I’ve talked with since August is that folks have been busy,…

“Nature doesn’t have a design problem. People do.” ~William McDonough and Michael Braungart in Cradle to Cradle Our mental models, store our internal assumptions about the way the world works, determine how we see and behave in the world.  We accept unexamined assumptions as the way things are, the way…