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Blog #29: 2025 Post: President Mandela: A Mentor and An Inspiration
Some ask why I write and speak in many forums about Nelson Mandela. I do as he became both my mentor and a deep inspiration. I have read many books and articles about him, met him, and went to South Africa to walk in some of the footsteps that were a part of his “Long…
Continue readingBlog #28: 2025 Post: Two Nuggets – Sense Free Thinking about Thinking REVEALS…
Stepped into the Saturday morning study group that had been meeting monthly for 10 plus years. Held my copy of “Philosophy of Spiritual Activity or The Philosophy of Freedom” and a small notepad. The doctor who expanded The Fellowship Community was central to the discussion. As was a retired butcher with forearms as large as…
Continue readingBlog #27: 2025 Post: The Mystery of I AM
Come with me if you will and follow with your common sense this explication about I AM. Two Words – I & AM. The only two words you can say for yourself in your inward holy of holies that no one else can say. The only two words I can say for myself in my…
Continue readingBlog #26: 2024 Post: A Cancer Journey
One out of six Americans are diagnosed with cancer. Yet when I received the diagnosis – I felt unique. Each and every cancer no matter how difficult or how easy the particular diagnosis – is unique. And each and every cancer impacts differently. Yet as I went through my own unique journey, I felt less…
Continue readingBlog #25: 2023 Post: Closing Thoughts
Blog Posts Where Race is an Aspect of the Themes This is my last blog for 2023. I wrote 12 in 2022. The inspiration to write these occurs in the last 6 months of the year. I will wait to see what occurs in the last 6 months of 2023. Thank you for reading my…
Continue readingBlog #24: 2023 Post: Two Wonderful Touches
Blog Posts Where Race is an Aspect of the Themes On the Friday before Labor Day Weekend in 2011, I experienced vertigo for the first time. It was in retrospect likely from being dehydrated. As I got up from a prone position for a routine medical test, I needed to rush to the bathroom to…
Continue readingBlog #23: 2023 Post: The Tremendous Opportunity for “Sharing”
Blog Posts Where Race is an Aspect of the Themes The question has been asked of me “Do you have a moral compass that leads you to your position on Wealth Transformation?” When I was 17 (I am 72 today) and obtained my driver’s license I found a car and with a friend in 1968…
Continue readingBlog #22: 2023 Post: Vision for Repair and Transformation
Blog Posts Where Race is an Aspect of the Themes Following George Floyd’s tortuous murder, many were deeply motivated to try to do something. I read Randall Robinson’s book when it came out in 2001. “The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks.” Thereafter, I frequently thought about reparations. After George Floyd’s death, I interviewed 20…
Continue readingBlog #21: 2023 Post: A Takeaway from the Historically Accurate McCleod Plantation Visit
Blog Posts Where Race is an Aspect of the Themes When we went to the Plantation many things stood out and were impactful. One that stays with me is that this big house and the land from 1861 to 1863 was a headquarters for the Confederate army. Fort Sumter is visible in the distance. The…
Continue readingBlog #20: 2023 Post: Daughter Goes to South Africa
Blog Posts Where Race is an Aspect of the Themes My daughter Sonja Kristine was born in October of 1991. President Mandela’s autobiography was published in 1994. He was elected President in 1994. His autobiography became a passion for me. So as family nature would have it, my daughter grew up with me at the…
Continue readingBlog #19: 2023 Post: Speaking about Mandela
How to Welcome Mandela as Your Mentor Blog Posts where Race is an Aspect of the Themes It has been a deep honor for me to be able to speak about Nelson Mandela over the past many years. I have done so with Federal Bar Associations, State Bar Associations, businesses, churches and synagogues. I have…
Continue readingBlog #18: 2023 Post: The Honorable Michael J. Davis
Blog Posts where Race is an Aspect of the Themes #1: Stunning Trial Lawyer I met Michael Davis in the summer of 1976. I had just completed my first year of law school. I was told at school if I wanted to be a trial lawyer to go and watch great trial lawyers. I went…
Continue readingBlog #17: 2023 Post: Sitting Down? No – You Must Stand Up
Blog Posts where Race is an Aspect of the Themes At the Jesuit Catholic University I went to from 1969-1973, an issue arose regarding Black Civil Rights. In 1972 and 1973, a large group of Black students attended the school’s Division One home basketball games. When doing so, they sat as a group at center…
Continue readingBlog #16: 2023 Post: First Great Love
Blog Posts Where Race is an Aspect of the Themes I met a woman at a Bill Withers concert. She was in the row in front of me on a date with another man. She had a great smile, a great laugh and a lightness of being. I did everything I could sitting behind her…
Continue readingBlog #15: 2023 Post: A Scrimmage with a Forward Lineage
Blog Posts where Race is an Aspect of the Themes In the fall of 1969, I was a new recruit – selected by retiring head coach Red McManus to play basketball at Creighton. The new young coach I was to play for was Eddie Sutton. He had come from Oklahoma. I was one of three…
Continue readingBlog #14: 2023 Post: Beat Up
Blog Posts where Race is an Aspect of the Themes One Saturday evening in the fall of 1971, I was coming back to my dorm. I walked a familiar route and was next to my dorm in front of the campus bookstore and about to climb some steps that would lead to more steps to…
Continue readingBlog #13: 2023 Post: Chey Chey – The Wonderful Guy – Cheyenne – Walter Middleton
Blog Posts where Race is an Aspect of the Themes “Chey Chey — The Wonderful Guy – so nice they named me twice.” That is the name and greeting I received when I met Walter Middleton also known as Cheyenne. He shows up in my dorm room as my roommate in 1970. Me, an 18…
Continue readingBlog #12: 2022 Posts: Further Thoughts on a Path
This is my last post explicitly about Anthroposophy. In this post I will essentially make introductory comments and attach 3 sets of documents. With the attached documents it will be one of the larger posts and may serve as a future reference post for some. All 7 billion plus of us here on Earth have…
Continue readingBlog #11: 2022 Posts: The Truth of Anthroposophy as Revealed in Other’s Lives
This post is an attempt to build a bridge from the last post to the next one. I grew up in the Catholic Church. I went to Catholic schools from grade one through university. My Mom was a devout Catholic with a very strong and full faith. I am grateful in so many ways for…
Continue readingBlog #10: 2022 Posts: A 2004 Interview: Bringing Anthroposophy Into Life
The below interview by William Jensen of Bill Manning accomplishes three things: Anthroposophy has given me over the past 50 years (I gratefully discovered it when I was 22) the widest and deepest aperture on all of life both externally and internally. I am always open to looking at new approaches, new philosophies, new insights,…
Continue readingBlog #9: 2022 Posts: Testifying Before the Senate Commerce Committee
Shortly after the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in 1999, it became clear to National legal audiences that we had survived an attempt by Case Corp. on behalf of Corporate Manufacturing America to have our case shut down due to an Oregon statute of repose. In Oregon where Steven’s accident occurred we had no opportunity to…
Continue readingBlog #8: 2022 Posts: Steven Sharp and Senator Joe Biden Speak from the Same Podium
In February of 2004 I had the distinct honor, privilege and pleasure of introducing Steven Sharp at the Association of Trial Lawyers of America ( ATLA ) Winter Convention in Orlando, Florida. Steven and I were on the same podium with Senator Joe Biden. Senator Biden was the keynote speaker. I spoke for 4 minutes…
Continue readingBlog #7: 2022 Posts: Our True Names
On 1/22/22 a world spiritual leader, Thich Nhat Hanh, crossed over. It seems only appropriate to simply acknowledge him here even though his passing has been widely acknowledged. Many would say he is the most influential Buddhist leader second only to the Dalai Lama. I would surely agree. His writings have inspired me throughout my…
Continue readingBlog #6: 2022 Posts: Hamline Convocation Speech to a First Year Law School Class
August 19, 2002 It has been interesting to look back 20 years to 2002 to reflect on a speech I gave after 24 years of practicing law. Many themes you have read in prior blogs and that you may see in the future have been living in me for quite awhile. Today you are possibly…
Continue readingBlog #5: 2022 Posts: New Beginnings
This blog is a New Beginning. Thank you for subscribing to receive it. Some have asked why I am doing this. I have heard the expression — everyone has one great book in them. Not sure I do. What I do have is a series of events and experiences in life that have provided deep…
Continue readingBlog #4: 2022 Posts: Meeting for a Day with Owen Barfield
In 1981 when my wife left for 10 months to go East to obtain a second degree, I stayed home and paid the mortgage and read all the works of Owen Barfield. It was a wonderful immersion. Barfield – a lawyer until age 50, then a career as a brilliant poet, writer, and original thinker…
Continue readingBlog #3: 2022 Posts: Summer of ’68: A Brief Encounter and a Brief Note
In his journal entry for June 13, 1968, Thomas Merton wrote, “The other night when it was too hot to go to bed, I was sitting up with nothing on but a pair of underpants when a couple of admirers suddenly appeared in front of the cottage. I told them to get the hell out,…
Continue readingBlog #2: 2022 Posts: Meeting President Nelson Mandela
In 1990 Nelson Mandela was released from 27 years in prison. In 1994 his autobiography “The Long Walk to Freedom” was published. Also, in 1994 Mr. Mandela was overwhelming elected as the President of South Africa. On reading Nelson Mandela’s autobiography he became my mentor. I had been practicing law at that point for 14…
Continue readingBlog #1: 2022 Posts: Chey Chey – The Wonderful Guy – Cheyenne – Walter Middleton
“Chey Chey — The Wonderful Guy – so nice they named me twice.” That is the name and greeting I received when I met Walter Middleton also known as Cheyenne.He shows up in my dorm room as my roommate in 1970. Me, an 18 year old white guy at a midwestern Catholic University on a…
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