COMMENTARY 782.1: Improving Your Life By Improving Your Mind

Our abilities to think, reason and learn are among the most powerful tools we have to make our lives safer, more comfortable and more fulfilling. Yet many of us simply do not develop our mental capacities. Although we can learn important information in school, the wise person in pursuit of self-improvement realizes that education is a lifelong process of expanding …

COMMENTARY 781.4: Making the Best from Adversity

No one wants pain, troubles or hardship, but it’s absolutely inevitable that we all will have plenty of each. And they won’t always come in forms we prefer, doses we think are manageable or at times of our choosing. Adversity is never welcome, but it is not necessarily our enemy. Still, the lesson we must teach our children is that …

COMMENTARY 781.1: Enough is Enough

What does it take to make you happy? How much do you have to have to be grateful? To the barefoot man, happiness is a pair of old shoes. To the man with old shoes, it’s a pair of new shoes. To the man with new shoes, it’s more stylish shoes. And, of course, the fellow with no feet would …

COMMENTARY 780.4: Digging and Filling Holes

Charlie, a road crew supervisor for highway landscapers, came upon a pair of workers from one of his crews seemingly hard at work. He watched one fellow dig a hole while his partner waited a few minutes and then filled the hole. After a few repetitions, Charlie demanded an explanation. The hole-filler was offended: “We’ve been doing this job for …

FATHERS & FATHERHOOD: Greatest Quotes About Fathers and Fatherhood compiled by Michael Josephson

  We are glad you visited us to find this selection quotes on fathers. The Josephson Institute is a nonprofit organization devoted to increasing the ethical quality of individual and personal decision making.  I hope you’ll browse our other entries and subscribe to our What Will Matter blog at www.whatwillmatter.com (it’s free) and/or our What Will Matter Facebook https://www.facebook.com/WhatWillMatter?ref=hl. I think …

COMMENTARY: The Perfect Father’s Day Gift

When I was young, I idolized my father, judging him for his virtues. For most of the rest of my life, I criticized him, judging him for his faults. I always loved him, but I didn’t always appreciate him. I was so aware of his imperfections (surely, no worse than my own) that I greatly undervalued his good qualities and …

COMMENTARY 780.2: Fixing Toxic Relationships

Are there people in your life who regularly cause you to feel bad about yourself? Most of us care what others think of us, so knowing that someone doesn’t like or approve of the judgments we’ve made or how we look can be hurtful. And when we’re judged by someone whose approval we crave such as a parent, spouse, teacher, …

COMMENTARY 780.1: Keep Singing, Michael

According to a story in Woman’s Day magazine, every day since Michael found out he was going to have a baby sister, he would touch his mommy’s tummy tenderly and sing all the songs he knew. Unfortunately, the baby was born in critical condition and the doctors warned that the little girl would not last through the week. Children are …

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT FOR TEENS: The Summer Job Conundrum

Hi, this is Michael Josephson with my last Something to Think About story for the school year. Julia, an 11th grader was thrilled when she got an A+ on an assignment to design an advertising brochure in an art class. And when her teacher, Mr. Roberts, told her she should consider a career in advertising Julia realized that was exactly what …

Commentary 779.5: The Carrot, the Egg, and the Coffee Bean

Let’s face it. Painful personal trauma and tragedy — like illness or injury, death of a loved one, loss of a job or an unexpected breakup of a relationship — are unavoidable. The question is: Will these private calamities erode our capacity to be happy or cause us to become stronger and better able to live a meaningful and fulfilling …

Commentary 779.4: Box Full Of Love

Todd was a sadly quiet eleven-year-old struggling to adjust to the death of his mother. His father left long ago and he was living with an aunt who made it known that she resented the responsibility. On several occasions, Sheryl, the boy’s teacher, heard the aunt tell Todd, “If it weren’t for my generosity you would be a homeless orphan.” …

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT FOR TEENS: Teenagers Lead the Way

Hi this is Michael Josephson with Something to Think About. Olivia Gardner was a sixth grader in Northern California when she suffered an epileptic seizure in front of her classmates. Immediately, the name-calling began. The hallway insults and ridicule – “freak,” “retard,” “weirdo” – escalated into cyber-bullying as a few nasty students set up an “Olivia Haters” website. One student …

COMMENTARY 779.3: Advice About Teens

Here are three suggestions for the parents of young teens, all learned through my own mistakes: First, remember, with emerging demands for independence, worries about peer acceptance, pressures of school and extra-curricular activities and a continuous search for self-identity, adolescents are on a physical and emotional roller coaster. Like every generation before them (including yours), young teens are often arrogant …

COMMENTARY 779.2: The Blue Stone and the White Lie

When my daughter Abrielle was 4, she came running down the hall screaming. “I don’t want to die! I swallowed a stone!” I immediately determined that nothing was obstructing her throat, but she was still in a panic. “It’s OK, sweetheart,” I tried to soothe her. “You’re not going to die.” She thought I didn’t understand. “But I swallowed a …

COMMENTARY 779.1: Dying From the Cold Within

One of the great challenges to our humanity is acknowledging and overcoming our natural tendency to think less of and discriminate against people who are different than us racially, ethnically, religiously or ideologically. Despite persistent rhetoric about prizing diversity, political debates often reflect disdain and contempt for those we disagree with and prejudices of all sorts are more readily stated.  …

COMMENTARY 778.5: Learning From Pigeons

During an experiment, pigeons were put in cages with one green and one red button.  In one cage, if the birds pecked the green button they would get food every time.  In the other, the green button yielded food erratically and the pigeons had to persist to get enough food.  In both cases, pecking the red button did nothing.  Both …

COMMENTARY 778.4: The Best Dad

Years ago I heard a story of a dad named Paul who gave his young son a small chalkboard to practice writing on. One evening his son called out from the bedroom, “Dad, how do you spell best?” Paul answered him. Moments later, the boy hollered, “How do you spell kid?” Finally he asked, “How do you spell ever?” When …

COMMENTARY 778.3: The Parable of Brother Leo

An old legend tells of a monastery in France well-known throughout Europe because of the extraordinary leadership of a man known only as Brother Leo. Several monks began a pilgrimage to visit Brother Leo to learn from him. Almost immediately the monks began to bicker over who should do various chores. On the third day they met another monk who …

COMMENTARY 778.2: Who’s Right and Who’s Wrong?

On many issues of morality we are deeply divided. The volume and virulence of disagreement on issues like stem cell research, abortion, and gay unions is testimony to the undeniable reality that millions of Americans are lined up on opposite sides of a chasm, appalled at the ethical poverty of those they disagree with. According to a May 2005 Gallup poll, about …