“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is a proverb I learned in primary school along with other common English idioms. It never occurred to me at the time that the saying contradicted the also-common “You’re never too old to learn.” It turns out that even if the battle between “fixed mindsets” and “growth […]
Repenting to create
“Creativity,” Robert Greene once wrote, “is a combination of discipline and a childlike spirit.” It’s also about the ability to let go and start again, and again, and again. I re-read Anne Lamott’s thoughts on repentance, writing, and graceless perfectionism recently. As I’ve reminded myself, learning requires room for error, but the drive toward perfectionism makes […]
The mechanics of an oppressive society
Walter Brueggemann explains in The Prophetic Imagination some of the ways that King Solomon’s reign returned the Israelites to the oppressive culture they’d once experienced under the Egyptians. The top three tools are the “economics of affluence,” the “politics of oppression,” and the “establishment of a controlled, static religion.” According to Brueggemann, Solomon’s regime used these three cultural elements together to […]
Why it can be so hard to change our minds
Left: A new concept with legs. Right: A brain with bug eyes and gaping mouth waving a sword in each hand. Speech bubble: “Have no fear. I will kill it with swords!” If you’ve ever scribbled a rough denial in the margin of a book that challenged your core beliefs, you’ve experienced some of the […]
Changing course
Little is more quintessentially American than asserting the right to change course. The Declaration of Independence hinges on this passage from lawyer, advocate, president, and slavery investor Thomas Jefferson: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, […]
Changing under duress
Most of us will finally change under two exaggerated conditions: either we cannot stand or tolerate the situation, issue, or circumstance any longer, so we will change; or we want to experience something that has such a passion for us that we will go for it, no matter what it takes. Both of these are […]