In Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by three ghosts who reveal the past, present, and future realities shaped by his life. The ghostly visitations initiate a transformation that normal life circumstances failed to achieve. A Christmas Carol is universally known as a story about Scrooge’s redemption from cold-hearted egotist to engaged
Even those that have never read A Christmas Carol or seen its adaptations often associate the term ‘Scrooge’ with someone who is irritable, greedy, or bitter. From his famous "Bah, humbug!" to lines like, "Every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding," Scrooge has established
Over the years the Stewart Center has had many memorable students, but few have had Zaria’s lasting impact since she joined the youth group in 2016.
A continuation of “It’s All About Sex...And I Don’t Like It” “How much for both of us?” asked the driver of a dark truck. Nicky was enjoying a plate of barbecue on the porch of a vacant house. It was July 4th and she was not looking for work. Out of instinct, she named her
I rode the dark streets of the Pittsburgh community looking for a prostitute; it was around 7:30 pm on a Saturday night in January. The forecast was for overnight temperatures to dip into the teens. I found Nicky on one of her usual corners, bundled up and smoking a cigarette. I offered to drive her
Henry Aaron was eighteen in 1952 when he boarded a train in Mobile, Alabama bound for Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the spring training home of the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro League. With a sack of sandwiches, two dollars and dark brown skin no one could have predicted that the skinny kid on that train would
From the 1950’s until his death in 2009, Paul Harvey was one of the most recognizable and influential voices on American radio. Over the course of his career Harvey was engaged in a variety of news formats but he is best remembered for his twice-daily News and Comment and The Rest of the Story. I
There are a thousand things that I need to be doing instead of writing a blog post, but I must write while the wound is fresh. I fear that time will scab over the cut with “perspective” and leave only a small scar that becomes a vague reminder of a past injury and eventually fades
A friend sent me a quote some months back that characterized leadership as being restless for change, impatient for progress and deeply dissatisfied with the status quo. While I might not be characterized as a visionary leader that brings out the best in those I lead, I am most certainly impatient. I could write textbooks
Five months ago our family moved from Tucker, a suburb of Atlanta, to a house two miles from the Stewart Center. Our new proximity to the Center and our oldest son’s entrance into kindergarten have linked my personal and professional lives and given urgency to my work as director of the Stewart Center. Our new