Archive

From Scarcity to Resilience Within: A consumerist system creates a belief in the “scarcity within,” the belief that we need material goods to invoke the imagination, that we are incapable of constructing our own lives out of whatever we have at our disposal, that only others can provide us with the things needed to live. …

Some Scenes From a Class Taught from an Igloo : As I mentioned earlier, I built a homemade igloo this weekend with my kids. As a result of all this snow we’re getting here in North Carolina, we had a remote day today at the college where I teach. With having classes today, I knew I had Zoom on the docket for today. But I hate teaching over …

I’m putting together a workshop I’ll be offering in PDX among #Quakers in March. Here’s the working title and description: Endless Revolution - The Lamb’s War and Framing Quaker Relationships to Empire Today Description: In this workshop, we will explore the early political …

Don't Forget We're Here by Lamorna Ash: A friend just shared this link and some comments to a new book on that sounds really good: Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever: A New Generation’s Search for Religion, by Lamorna Ash (Bloomsbury, 2025) The relevance for Quakers can be seen in this comment: From Quaker Theology group FB …

We Built an Igloo in the Backyard: North Carolina got a huge amount of snow (for us) this past weekend. 10-12 inches where we live. The snow was much that we were pretty well locked into the house for a couple day. Because, I’ve been wanting to build an igloo with my kids for ages, I saw my chance. I managed to get them outside …

Psalm for the Slightly Tilted … In the year they come for us watch my people make protest signs out of old pizza boxes. Watch- there are no boring people which is unfortunate. You’d think statistically we’d get at least a few- one-speed souls with just meh stuff to do. But none of them are …

I’ve been getting up each weekday morning at 5:45 so I can spend an hour in deep work. I log my work each morning in a Midori notebook so I can see how many hours I worked that week and what I worked on. It’s a simple practice but honestly, I look forward to it and it’s often my …

Last night we started watching: Hijack Season 2. Great opening episode. 🍿

Here’s how Auden explained it in his essay “Some Reflections on the Arts”: Every genuine work of art exhibits two qualities, Nowness—an art-historian can assign at least an approximate date to its making—and Permanence—it remains on hand in the world long after its maker and his society have ceased …

Throughout history, humanity has achieved extraordinary things without artificial intelligence. The pyramids. The Renaissance. The Industrial Revolution. Medical discoveries that saved millions. Literary masterpieces that moved generations. All of this innovation stemmed from uniquely human …

Enjoyed this episode of the Search Engine Podcast where PJ collabs with Casey and Kevin from Hard Fork on Fediverse instance: www.searchengine.show/the-fediv…

From the New York Times: “THE WORLD W/Out A PHONE,” they read, in heavy text that had been plunked out on a typewriter. The posters were pasted in dorms at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, N.M., a small and rigorous liberal arts school in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Each one …

I love this post about Thom Yorke and his co-conspirator and artist Stanley Donwood and their work on Radiohead artwork. I love the way she tells the story through artwork of her own. www.newyorker.com/humor/ske…

We’re still tracking down the start of SPICE: If you ask about Quaker beliefs these days, one of the common answers you’ll get is SPICE, a handy acronym that holds together a hodgepodge of values, namely: simplicity, peace, integrity, community and equality (and later sustainability to become …

3-2-1 Note-taking Method : Here’s something I’ve been doing in my class the last semester as I’ve shifted my assignments to writing reading notes on paper. This method is meant to help you focus more on the reading rather than taking tedious notes, to keep the process simple enough that notes can be …

From Austin Kleon’s Weekly Newsletter

As I have said before: Everybody knows what this is. There is literally not one person who believes that kids learn anything about anything when they’re allowed to spend their classroom time on their laptops and phones. Everybody knows that education has been given up on; everybody knows that …

“I am so bored by A.I. One of the things I love about the theater is: A.I. can’t do it. I couldn’t be less interested in computers and fake things. I like people. I like the way they smell, I like the way they talk, and I like the way they think. I think of A.I. as a plagiarizing mechanism. That’s …

My dog on her way to the doctors. She’s not the biggest fan as you can see. Fortunately, she’s okay. She’s been limping the last few weeks but nothing seems broken.

Great news from Guilford College - we are now off of probation and have retained our accreditation. As I’ve been saying, we have a clean bill of health. Two news stories: Guilford College secures accreditation after probation lifted “We did it”: SACSCOC affirms accreditation of Guilford …

Can’t wait to see Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair in the theater. 🍿

Public Universal Blend is now for sale for a limited time on Fireweed Coffee’s website: fireweedcoffeeco.com/products/…

Pros and Cons of Seminary - This Tuesday: I’ll be participating on a panel discussion with other Quaker ministers called The Pros and Cons of Seminary: Thinking about seminary—or reflecting on your own journey? Join us for an honest conversation with three panelists as they share how seminary shaped their lives and ministries, what …

Loved this post from Rebecca Solnit: When people tell me that there’s been no resistance to the Trump administration, I wonder if they’re expecting something that looks like a guerrilla revolution pushing out the government in one fell swoop or just aren’t paying attention, because there has, in …

I’ll be speaking at this panel discussion on the pros and cons of seminary in a couple weeks. This event is being put on by Public Friends. Register below: Panel: The Pros and Cons of Seminary — Public Friends

Birthday Adventure This Weekend: My wife and I had a little holiday this weekend to celebrate both of our birthdays. We visited some new places and enjoyed almost 24 hours on our own. It was quite lovely. Crazy Alan’s Emporium was the highlight for me. An amazing stationary store in Chapel Hill. Hands down my favorite new …

In September, the pope told journalists, “Someone who says I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/1…

Let America Be America Again: O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath— America will be! Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the …

A Virtual Duplicate: A virtual double-vision where two things are the same but appear differently: Today a friend on a zoom call mentioned that sometimes on zoom, when someone is already there and also arriving on a new device at the same time it is disorienting because you often see the same person from two different …

My book, A Convergent Model of Renewal, is currently 50% off at the publisher. Shipping is free. A great deal! Use coupon code: CONFSHIP

The Wander Society: I love this website: www.thewandersociety.com and the video here. cc/ Austin Kleon

A photo from the Mountaineer ride this past weekend from Jonny Ramirez. About 2 months ago, I got really interested in doing the Mountaineer ride and started getting ready. I opted to do the 65 mile route which I’m glad I did for how beautiful the ride was but it was really hard. I …

This is Tree Wess. Last night we had our Quaker Leadership Scholars Program Halloween party and we all dressed up. This is what I came up with.

From New Seeds of Contemplation: The life of contemplation implies two levels of awareness: first, awareness of the question, and second, awareness of the answer. Though these are two distinct and enormously different levels, yet they are in fact an awareness of the same thing. The question is, …

Took a 20 mile ride this morning on the greenway. It started out at 50 degrees and was very cold but the ride was wonderful. I lost my phone on the ride but a good samaritan took it to the lost and found at the nearby park.

I’m really looking forward to my first gravel ride event with the Appalachian Mountaineer next week. I’m planning to do the non-competitive 65 mile ride.

Absolutely not. Terrible use of this noun and Quaker moniker.

Boat Build Update: We’re building at boat at Guilford College. My colleague, Damon Akins, came up with the idea. The hope for the project is to build stronger connections between students, faculty, and staff; help learn practical skills of building and problem-solving; and create an opportunity for a positive …

Deep Listening Practice: Here’s the outline for the Deep Listening practice I did today with my First Year Seminar Class. Deep Listening “To listen to another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be the greatest service that any human being ever performs for another.” Douglas Steere (Quaker author) …

I’ve been thinking about a post I did last year on making a new hymnal: The music we sing together in community should not just be a means to an end, but something that gets to us and carries us into the heart of the music itself. Music is mobile and can be there for you when you need it, …

QUNO Geneva seeks a Peace & Disarmament Representative: The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) seeks a committed and motivated person with considerable knowledge and experience to carry forward work on Peace and Disarmament in the QUNO Geneva office. Leading the Peace & Disarmament Programme, the Representative will maintain QUNO’s long-term Quaker …

The Friends Historical Association is hosting a free talk with scholar Marcus Rediker about his new book “Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea.” This year’s event will feature a talk given by Marcus Rediker on his new book, Freedom Ship: The Uncharted …

A Community of Symphony: Loved this quote from the book “Living the Questions - Essays Inspired by the Work and Life of Parker J. Palmer:” From Chapter Four - Opening Space for the Inner Life Part of the magic of music is that it synchronizes the participants into one whole. The field of neuroscience today is …