Winston Churchill famously observed that “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” Churchill was right, but he failed to note that the philosophies shaping our buildings come from the same intellectual fermentation tanks that shape literature, music, and the rest of contemporary culture. For the past eighty years, architecture’s thought leaders have been proponents…

Whatever one may think of the last few Bourbon kings of France, they certainly knew how to build well. The legacy they left us at the Louvre and Versailles draws millions of gawkers from around the world. Clearly, tour book architecture is significant. But what about the architecture of our everyday lives? Is there any…

Back page news. Go to the recycle bin and find the “religion” section in last Saturday’s newspaper. Hard to find? Religion is routinely relegated to the least read page in the least read section on the least read day of the week. Why is that?

Wise elders? In the July-August Harvard Business Review, Neil Howe and William Strauss suggest that generations born after a great war or other crisis tend to “grow up as increasingly indulged children, come of age as the narcissistic young crusaders of a spiritual awakening, cultivate principles as moralistic midlifers, and emerge as wise elders.”1 So…

Imagining… not emerging. When we learned earlier this year that the U.S. population shot past 300 million, a great many of us began to feel the squeeze. Yet if the entire population of the United States moved to Texas, we’d each receive two acres. Hmmm… not so crowded now.

Insanity. Only a slim slice of the population pie is drawn to the typical health club. It’s a small slice and not growing. Yet a new line of clubs, Curves, has become the fastest growing in the industry. Rather than competing within the confines of the existing industry or trying to steal customers from rivals,…

Poking fun. An Orthodox rabbi asks a Reformed rabbi: “One of my congregants says his son wants a Harley for his bar mitzvah. What’s a Harley?” Reformed rabbi to Orthodox rabbi: “A Harley is a motorcycle. What’s a bar mitzvah?” An important legacy of the Judeo-Christian faith is seeing the virtue of poking fun at…

Staring at us. Benedictine monks never imagined that their new technology, designed to help workers unwind, would eventually wrap workers around the axle. William Farish never imagined that his technological innovation would make his profession meaningless. New technologies are wonderful in what they promise to do, yet we are often “incapable of imagining what they…

In the pits. Mentoring is making a comeback in business circles. The results, however, are uneven. For thousands of years, mentors transformed protégés (butchers, bankers and candlestick makers) into professionals. In the nineteenth century, a “modern” view of business reduced mentoring to a pit stop. And therein lies the problem… and the opportunity for people…

Say What??? During halftime of the NCAA lacrosse finals, two Duke players were describing the key to successful passing and shot making. “Me and him have to have eye contact.” Me and him?