Fall 2019: Where Are We?
Dear Friends, As summer ends, as the fall of 2019 begins, where are we? The world is on fire: the Amazon, Siberia, Indonesia, and much more. Some fires are deliberately lit to clear land for grazing and agriculture. Many more are accidental or spontaneous. Global...
Notes from Whidbey Island
Dear New School Friends: I'm spending much of the summer on Whidbey Island, north of Seattle. Here are some notes about how life and the world look to me right now. First, life. My 75th year offers opportunities for reflection. I care about what I am reading, what I...
Spring Letter From Commonweal
Dear Commonweal Friends: I hope this Spring Letter finds you well. I write you this personal letter twice a year. Commonweal thrives in our 44th year. You will soon receive the Commonweal News. This personal letter focuses on four projects I guide—the Commonweal...
Can the Universe Story Bring Us Together?
A New Biography of Thomas Berry "The universe,” Thomas Berry wrote in his prescient Dream of the Earth, “is a single, gorgeous, celebratory event." Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, and Andrew Angyal recently published Thomas Berry—A Biography. It is the definitive...
Deepening Understanding of Enneagram Types: Watching People of Each Type Describe Their Experience
Dear New School Friends, As I write, we have just completed our third day-long workshop with Beatrice Chestnut, author of The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge. The enneagram, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is a model of the human...
Commonweal’s Resilience Project
Dear TNS Friends: The chatter of politicians and commentators continues about all manner of things. But nature bats last. The "Polar Vortex" descends on the Midwest. Here is a beautiful piece from WIRED: "And now the weather: Mars-like, with a chance of apocalypse."...
Report on Recent Justice System Reform Bills
Dear New School Friends, Health, the environment and justice have been keystones for Commonweal's work for 43 years. Services for at-risk children was the first program at Commonweal. David Steinhart has led the Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program for more than two...
Winter Letter to Commonweal Friends
December 26, 2018 Dear Commonweal Friends: I hope this Fall Letter finds you well. You recently received the Commonweal News. This is the personal letter I write to you twice a year. I can’t touch on all Commonweal programs, but I want to give you a sense of the...
Healing in Community
Dear New School Friends: Does some part of you call out for healing? Do you know we heal best in relationship, in community? Do you wish for a relationship or community that would help you heal--and learn better how to help others? Healing Circles is a simple way to...
Beyond Conventional Cancer Therapies: Website Launch
Dear New School Friends, Since 38% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime, doesn't it make sense to know that integrating the best conventional and complementary therapies can improve quality of life, potentially slow or prevent recurrence,...
Announcing the Enneagram Panels
Dear New School Friends, I am honored and delighted that my friend and colleague Beatrice Chestnut will be presenting three day-long workshops of Enneagram panels at Commonweal. Enneagram is an archetypal depth psychology. It has enormous power to deepen our insight...
The Change
For The Children The rising hills, the slopes, of statistics lie before us. The steep climb of everything, going up, up, as we all go down. In the next century or the one beyond that, they say, are valley, pastures, we can meet there in peace if we make it. To climb...