Dean’s Column
The Dean of the North Shore Chapter of AGO writes a monthly column for our newsletter, Overtones. Those messages will appear here, along with any other posts or articles from the Dean between editions.
Dean’s Column | June 2021
Dear Friends, I have long been a fan of the late USC philosophy professor, Dallas Willard. His insights were profound and his demeanor disarming and engaging. Few insights seem as prescient as his argument that we must “ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our...
Dean’s Column | May 2021
Dear Friends, The AGO Committee on Membership Development was recently tasked with the project of creating a webinar to be used as a resource for local chapters such as ours. Titled “Re-igniting, Re-imagining and Re-emerging from COVID-19,” eleven AGO chapters from...
Dean’s Column | April 2021
Dear Friends, Suez Canal Last week, a sandstorm caused the cargo ship Ever Given to run aground in the Suez Canal, blocking it completely. The canal sees 10% of the world’s daily shipping traffic, but is only 300 feet wide in places. Ever Given is ¼ mile long,...
Dean’s Column | March 2021
Scottish poet Robert Burns, ploughing his field, accidentally destroyed the nest that a mouse had carefully prepared in anticipation of winter. Reflecting, Burns left us the well-known phrase “best-laid plans”: You saw the fields laid bare and empty, and weary winter...
Dean’s Column | February 2021
Dear Friends, This pandemic has made me more aware than ever before that I have little control over the most important things in life. I can’t keep my loved ones safe. I’m not in charge of the world. So, I’m learning to surrender to this lack of control and find...
Dean’s Column | January 2021
Dear Friends, It has been said that an optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in, while a pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. If you were beat up by 2020, I can understand if you and those around you are anxious to see it go. I love a...
Dean’s Column | December 2020
Recently someone asked me the question, “When was the last time you did something for the first time?” That question gave me pause, as it seems a bit of a challenge to embrace new experiences within the limitations of our world today. The ideas that come to my mind...
Dean’s Column | November 2020
Dear Friends, A new genre of humor is emerging: jokes about 2020. I recently heard someone say they were not turning their clocks back “because no one wants an extra hour of this year.” I am not surprised that people want 2020 to be over. But, I do wonder why they...
Dean’s Column | October 2020
Dear Friends, These days, I’ve been thinking about things I need to spend more time considering. Thomas Hobbes famously suggested that life is “poor, nasty brutish and short.” One might assume he is speaking from the context we find ourselves in today. Yet, most of us...
Dean’s Column | September 2020
Dear Friends, It’s an Ice Age: Back when the Coronavirus was a news story from China, we had some warning from pundits that it was heading this way. As more and more cases occurred in the United States, it started to seem the only real question was whether it would...