Life Changes
Healing Through Storytelling: Lessons from The Odyssey
The journey of Odysseus in Homer's 'The Odyssey' offers profound insights into healing...
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- Written by: Will T. Wilkinson
To be “in this world but not of it” is the ultimate challenge. It's so much easier to withdraw from the craziness or get lost in it. Trauma specialists identify isolated incidents of extreme stress, but who considers the daily damage from living in this madhouse prison called civilization? Especially when...
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- Written by: Alan Seale
Chances are that you, like me, feel called to make a difference in this rapidly changing world. Today, more people than ever are feeling their own “divine dissatisfaction” or “blessed unrest” and want to make a difference. Yet also, unfortunately, it’s easy to get bogged down in not knowing how or where to begin.
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- Written by: Melissa De Witte
Elections play a distinctive role in strengthening democracy, and voting is a pivotal part of that process. That’s why new research makes the case for universal participation through mandatory voting.
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- Written by: Deana Rohlinger
A record number of women are headed to statehouses and Capitol Hill in 2019. One hundred women were elected to the U.S. House, which means that at least 121 women will serve in the 116th Congress – up from the current 107.
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- Written by: John Armor
For our first 125 years, about 35 percent of the members of the House retired before every election, because they believed that was good for them and good for the nation. Congressmen had not yet learned the art of feathering their own nests with hundred-thousand-dollar salaries, million-dollar pensions, large and obsequious staffs, and all the perks and privileges that power is heir to. In short, remaining in Congress for decades was not as attractive then as now.
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- Written by: Pippa Norris
Questions about the legitimacy of the 2016 U.S. presidential election continue to reverberate and deepen partisan mistrust in America. Doubts have been compounded by the indictment of 12 Russians following intelligence reports of Russian interference with the election.
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- Written by: Marie T. Russell, InnerSelf.com
Now that's an intense statement: We are responsible for the mess we made! And for some, it might tend to bring up anger, defensiveness, guilt, shame, feelings of being blamed, discouragement, and other such emotions. However, for me, I see it as good news! If we are responsible for the mess we made, then we can clean it up, and we can fix it.
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- Written by: Robert Jennings, InnerSelf.com
It seems every election is the most important. Why? Because every election has been. Why? Democracy is a very young form of governance. Those that seek power also seek to dismantle it.
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- Written by: Katherine Levine Einstein
Disconnects between different levels of government make it challenging to address important challenges that confront American cities, such as fixing worn-out infrastructure. These issues require federal, state and city agencies to work together to identify funding – mostly from higher levels of government – and to plan and carry out projects.
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- Written by: Melissa De Witte
Violent protests can undercut public support for popular causes, according to new research inspired by recent confrontations between white nationalist protesters and anti-racist counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Berkeley, California.
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- Written by: Matt Swayne
While outrage is generally considered a hurdle in the path to civil discourse, new research suggests outrage—specifically, moral outrage—may have beneficial outcomes, such as inspiring people to take part in long-term collective action.
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- Written by: Peter Dreier
An unsung shero of the early 20th century, Rose Schneiderman organized women to fight for laws to protect them from sexual harassment and assault in the workplace.
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- Written by: Robert Jennings, InnerSelf.com
For better or worse the radical remnants of the Republican party have now captured the American government completely. Whether they can hold it more than a month is all that is left to be seen.
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- Written by: Marie T. Russell
There seems to be so many things going on these days that need to be addressed. I compare the situation to a "healing crisis". You may have had a weakness in your body for years, and then the situation becomes acute, obvious, and unacceptable. It is the same with the world around us...
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- Written by: Bert Gambini
Democracy demands a robust contest of ideas to thrive, and diversity is the best way of protecting the democratic foundation of the American experiment, a new paper argues.
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- Written by: Michael Moore
I ask one simple question in my new film: how the hell did we let this happen and what the hell do we do now? Democracy is not a guarantee. Freedom is not inevitable. All of the myths and heroic tales we've told ourselves about America have been exposed. The mask has been removed. And in the battle for the future of America, there is no guarantee of victory.
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- Written by: Sarah Lazarovic
To those who take the bus or refuse plastic toothbrushes: Don’t listen to the cynics. Research shows the little things matter.
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- Written by: Tabita Green
Economic justice goes a long way toward improving mental health up and down the socioeconomic ladder.
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- Written by: Katie Fitzpatrick
It is not often that a neighbourhood squabble is remembered as a world-historical event. In the summer of 1846, Henry David Thoreau spent a single night in jail in Concord, Massachusetts after refusing to submit his poll tax to the local constable. This minor act of defiance would later be immortalised in Thoreau’s essay ‘On the Duty of Civil Disobedience’ (1849)
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- Written by: Marie T. Russell
What would be good for us to expand? Our caring heart would be a great place to start. We can start caring more about people around us and about the planet in general. Yes, of course we care, but we do so in a general and impersonal way.
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- Written by: Titus Stahl
In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the word ‘hope’ was ubiquitous in Western politics. While its use in the Barack Obama presidential campaign has become iconic, appeal to hope was not limited to the United States: the Leftist Greek Syriza party relied on the slogan ‘hope is on the way’.
