Google Street View and Happiness
Sometimes when I’m missing certain places, I’ll visit them using Google Street View. I can walk down childhood roads, visit old neighborhoods, observe favorite restaurants or city streets, or spy on my own house–all thanks to Google’s Street View. And sometimes, when I’m imagining what life must be like in a different city, I’ll visit […]
Reinvent the Course
I’ve been thinking about what it means to instruct, to offer suggestions, and to speak in the imperative mood. My love of verbs means I know they sometimes take the form of commands–imperative forms–that we use to express suggestions or advice. This morning, I used the imperative on myself. Here’s what I said: Reinvent […]
Why We Need Impossible Goals
I remembered lines from Lewis Carroll’s characters this morning about “impossible things.” Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said, “one can’t believe impossible things.”“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why sometimes I believed as many as six […]
Why Professors Can Also Be Christians
It’s possible to be a scholar and a Christian. It’s possible to study neuroscience, understand the process behind how we age fossils, know the mechanism of evolution, immerse yourself in various spiritual paths and still proclaim, with a resounding “yes,” that Jesus Christ is the one true God. Many professors have deeply held spiritual beliefs. […]