What it Takes: Recognizing the Downside to Raising Children in Affluence
What does it take to keep our kids safe, happy, healthy, and strong in a seemingly ever-complicated world of mixed media messages, strong peer influences, and varied pressures from the outside world? First, a story: I grew up in an affluent community with well-meaning parents who provided me and my brothers everything we could ever want or need. I went to the best schools in the county that held the title to championships for every sports and academic award known to man. I re
Teenagers & Change: The Battle Within
Two weeks ago I met a man who had retired his duty as teen mentor after less than one year on the job. He claimed that it was too much of a battle without enough proof that the time he spent with these teens really made any difference. He felt discouraged by what he perceived to be a lack of positive change in the lives of these young people and frustrated that despite his best efforts, many of these youth continued on in destructive ways. As he spoke, I couldn’t help but ref
A Recipe for Excellence
I was fourteen years old when I started a volunteer job that would forever change my life and the way I look at the world. The place: Casa de Consuelo (The House of Comfort), a small 10-bed hospice in South Texas that cared for the terminally ill in their final stages of life. My time there produced a question in my head that to this day, I cannot shake. That is, how can I live my life in such a way that at the end of it, I can look back and be utterly satisfied? This questio
