This fall, in our 25th year of Tomorrow’s Voices classes, 32 high school students will read the Phaedo. In it, Socrates argues that in an age of widespread disinformation and political corruption, it is far too easy to become misanthropic and misologic — hating reasoning and introspection. Ultimately, the dialogue speaks to the power of […]
A.O. Forbes
Posted inColumns
Seeking Haystacks: Home
The town of Aspen is founded on a gentle pitch that leans ever so slightly from north to south, from Little Nell to the Music Tent. As the Earth moves toward the March Equinox, the melting snow moves northward from Aspen Mountain toward the Roaring Fork River. It is imperceptible to most unless you are […]
Posted inColumns
Seeking Haystacks: When we come to it
When we come to it We, this people, on this wayward, floating body Created on this earth, of this earth Have the power to fashion for this earth A climate where every man and every womanCan live freely without sanctimonious piety Without crippling fear When we come to it We must confess that we are the possible We are the miraculous, the […]
Posted inColumns
Seeking Haystacks: ‘Only connect’
A few weeks ago, Kade Gianinetti, a student from my 2006 Tomorrow’s Voices class, came to our current class. Later, he wrote to me: I’m still thinking about your class last night. The conversation about activism, privilege, and community connection stuck with me. The discussion around how socioeconomic circumstances affect our capacity to engage with […]
Posted inColumns
Seeking Haystacks: Reclaiming character
My father was a B-24 bomber pilot during World War ll. After 87 missions, he was alive, brave, talented, funny and wickedly intolerant of anyone inauthentic. He despised the braggart, boasting of unearned privilege. He had been in positions where honor and honesty matter — were key to life. He distrusted leaders who thought different rules […]
Posted inColumns
Seeking Haystacks: Keep my eyes on the prize
Years ago, for the final in my class, we listened to a talk by Bryan Stevenson, the civil rights lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. It is a brilliant talk by a singular human being. He ended with the quote below. “ … I believe that many of you understand that the moral […]
Posted inColumns
Seeking Haystacks: Innocence
“Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.” -Albert Camus Trung Lee, a student from Vietnam, wrote in my class, “A civilization that is spineless and twists its principles at any moment’s notice will not survive, for someone who stands for nothing will die for nothing.” […]
Posted inColumns
Seeking Haystacks: Radically contagious
“Americans have mastered the ‘art’ of living with the unacceptable,” —Breten Breytenbach I have been circling this statement for months, disturbed by Breytenbach’s insight about who we are: a people seemingly ill-equipped to face our huge environmental, civic and political issues. Our nation appears unable to engage in any meaningful introspection, which proceeds truth telling […]
Posted inColumns
Seeking Haystacks: The beauty we seek
I am a teacher — an audacious claim for one who learns more from his students than he imparts. Yet, my students keep me honest and thinking! In our last class a student was speaking on how we might steer our valley, our planet, towards a more just, sane and sustainable way of being — […]
Posted inOpinion
Seeking Haystacks: An Introduction
As a child, I longed to be a hero, to be seen not just as Arthur, but as King Arthur, bringing chivalry to an unchivalrous world. I had a wicked crush on my third-grade classmate, Susie Wirth, and during recess, we would ride around on the back of her broom — she was a good […]