I hear a growing amount of conversations about where people are in the various stages of their lives. It’s good to have a general framework – especially when wrestling with something that [...]
Carol and I were in Baltimore last week, and our visits included a middle school in one of the worst neighborhoods of the city. The principal told us their students consistently dropped out long [...]
The song is so old that you cannot find the lyrics online, but in 1965 “Spider John” Koerner wrote and recorded “Rent Party Rag” on his first solo album. The gist of it was a story about what to [...]
Over the last 30 years I have listened to parents wrestle with how to best pass wealth to their children. But the more complicated issue arises when they have to decide which of their children is [...]
It’s Hard to Say It Last week I was in Charleston, South Carolina, for the annual conference of The Philanthropy Roundtable. I was one of three speakers on a panel [...]
Two devoted friends and brilliant minds — John Adams and Thomas Jefferson — fell out with each other over politics, personal slights and both feeling betrayed by the other. The feud not only [...]
It was 42 years ago when Carol and I last stood as a young and newly married couple with the people of Park Street Church in Boston and sang, “Our God Our Help in Ages Past” at the close of the [...]
The creation of wealth often spurs an unexpected reaction in the next generation. During the 12th and early 13th centuries there was something of an explosion of both wealth and the formation of [...]
My father died on August 17, 2006, and in honor of him and his father, Rev. M. Bunyan Smith, I am posting this blog I wrote two years ago. Why? Because I think it is some of the best writing my [...]
Steve Martin is known most widely for his early work in absurd comedy but he has also evolved into a serious art collector playwright and fine writer. In his memoir, “Born Standing Up” he [...]
