Bad Thinking

Three old men were at the doctor for a memory test. The doctor said to the first old man, "What is one plus one?"

"Two hundred seventy-four," ...

Touching the Hurting

Len Sweet in Postmodern Pilgrims recounts a letter a physician wrote to a church-related magazine:

Today I visited an eight-year-old girl dying of cancer. ...

Beethoven's Unknowing Self-Poisoning

An Illinois scientist recently uncovered the likely cause of Ludwig von Beethoven's death. After studying strands of Beethoven's hair, Dr. William ...

Power of Curiosity

In For the Time Being, Pulitzer Prize winning author Annie Dillard writes:

In Highland New Guinea, now Papua New Guinea, a British district officer named ...

Finding the Real Problem

I was back in my home state of California, working as a nurse in a busy emergency room. We had a regular visitor who tugged at my heart. His name was ...

The Root of Clarity

They that cannot speak clearly, seldom clearly understand what to speak.

Ideas Have Trajectories

Ideas have trajectories to them. It's a bit like the moonshot. When the rocket is aimed at the moon some 200,000 miles away, it has to be precise. ...

In the Process of Becoming

I remember that first time in school when Mrs. Dirksen, my first grade teacher, asked me what my name was. I knew that. And then she asked me what my ...

A Negative Result

Seen on a bumper sticker: I took an IQ test and the results were negative.

Definition Is a Prerequisite for Resolution

Let me give you a principle to remember: Definition is a prerequisite for resolution.

In other words, if you can define a problem, you can usually deal ...