Author: <span>Ben Wilkoff</span>

Question 71 of 365: What is a better organizing force, passion or values?

Image via Wikipedia I have created my communities wrong. Or at least, I have done it while ignoring a huge element of what makes a great community stick together: its values. On the one hand, I have been running away as far and fast as possible from any kind of …

Question 70 of 365: How far will serious take us?

Image via Wikipedia When I look at what goes viral, what memes consist of, or even what I happen to click on within my twitter stream; there is always an element of humor found within. Not all of them are laugh out loud funny, but in the way that they …

Question 69 of 365: Why is action such a surprise?

I have had a number of conversations recently that have resulted in someone saying that they were surprised that things were getting done. They were surprised at action. While I was somewhat baffled by the reaction, it made me think about what the root of this surprise might be. Getting …

Question 68 of 365: What does it mean to be a breadwinner?

Image via Wikipedia While I do not particularly like the designation or the baggage that goes along with it, being a breadwinner is something that is very important to me. I am not interested in being the sole breadwinner or someone who does only that, but there is most definitely …

Question 67 of 365: Why is time theft so seductive, and in many cases, productive?

I am a time thief. I take away time from my current employer in order to work on things that are not in my job description. I will admit that freely, even to the people I work for. But, up until recently, I have been able to keep it under …

Open Letter on Behalf of the National Writing Project (cross posted)

This post is cross-posted here and was written by Mr. Chase. The Gist: The current draft of the federal budget cuts direct funding for theĀ National Writing Project. The NWP has been one of the few extremely successful examples of a nationally-networked effort to improve K-12 writing for 36 years. We …

Question 66 of 365: What kind of relationships do our communities require?

I have a daughter and a son. My wife is my best friend. I live in the suburbs. Whether these are cliches or not, they are the truth that I live each day. The seemingly mundane existence found within these three facts is a lot of what makes me who …

Question 64 of 365: How can we be for ourselves and for an entity at the same time?

I have realized that an idea can’t grow if I don’t let it stand on its own. I have figured out that I cannot be the idea. If people are going to get behind it, it can’t be me they are getting behind. And yet, I have been branding and …

Question 63 of 365: Can we create passionate and purposeful Serendipity?

I don’t know all of the things that are going on in the world, nor do I really want to know all of them. I am content to know that there are good things going on around me and to see that I am loved. I can see things in …