The timing of death, like the ending of a story, gives a changed meaning to what preceded it..

The past empowers the present, and the sweeping footsteps leading to this present mark the pathways to the future..

The human species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories..

Improvisation and new learning are not private processes; they are shared with others at every age. We are called to join in a dance whose steps must….

Sharing is sometimes more demanding than giving..

Improvisation can be either a last resort or an established way of evoking creativity..

Insight, I believe, refers to the depth of understanding that comes by setting experiences, yours and mine, familiar and exotic, new and old, side by….

...a disgruntled reflection on my own life as a sort of desperate improvisation in which I was constantly trying to make something coherent from conf….

There are few things as toxic as a bad metaphor. You can't think without metaphors..

Most higher education is devoted to affirming the traditions and origins of an existing elite and transmitting them to new members..

As you get up in the morning, as you make decisions, as you spend money, make friends, make commitments, you are creating a piece of art called your ….

In many ways, constancy is an illusion. After all, our ancestors were immigrants, many of them moving on every few years; today we are migrants in t….

Rarely is it possible to study all of the instructions to a game before beginning to play, or to memorize the manual before turning on the computer. ….

Wherever a story comes from, whether it is a familiar myth or a private memory, the retelling exemplifies the making of a connection from one pattern….

Human beings tend to regard the conventions of their own societies as natural, often as sacred..

Goals too clearly defined can become blinkers..

What would it be like to have not only color vision but culture vision, the ability to see the multiple worlds of others..

I had repeatedly accepted inappropriate burdens, stepping in to do what needed to be done. In retrospect, I think I carried them well, but the cost w….

The critical question about regret is whether experience led to growth and new learning. Some people seem to keep on making the same mistakes, while ….

... as we age we have not only to readdress earlier developmental crises but also somehow to find the way to three affirmations that may seem to conf….

Fear is not a good teacher. The lessons of fear are quickly forgotten..