This Morning I Pray for My Enemies – Joy Harjo

And whom do I call my enemy? An enemy must be worthy of engagement. I turn in the direction of the sun and keep walking. It’s the heart that asks the question, not my furious mind. The heart is the smaller cousin of the sun. It sees and knows everything. It hears the gnashing even […]

The Overselling of Gratitude

Being told that all of us should regularly take time to list the things we’re grateful for sets my teeth on edge. It took me a while to figure out why. I realize that anyone who criticizes gratitude (really? gratitude??) risks being labeled not merely a contrarian but a curmudgeon, and even the fact that […]

Is My Skin Brown Because I Drank Chocolate Milk?

When her 3-year-old son told her that a classmate told him that his skin was brown because he drank chocolate milk, Dr. Tatum, former president of Spelman College and a visiting scholar at Stanford’s Haas Center for Public Service, was surprised. As a clinical psychologist, she knew that preschool children often have questions about racial […]