Houston Be Someone
(Not clear who) Whenever I see the now Houston iconic “BE SOMEONE” graph I think how perfect it is for Houston. Kind of vaguely encouraging, calling forth ambition. And I’m also reminded of the brilliant and funny Lily Tomlin (stand up, Broadway Lily, not the series LT) whose commentary never ages. Lily said : “All […]
Hospitality / Soulful Living
Today I’m thinking about all the investments I’ve made in other people. The events and parties and dinners and fundraising receptions I’ve hosted at my house at my expense. And three years of Sunday@Six gatherings. One of the things I love about true hospitality and generosity is it delivers a kind of immediate satisfaction. There […]
Starting Places
Five years ago, Judge Ed Emmett rang me up as I was juggling two phones trying to get information about which of our centers were flooded and which were dry. As then CEO of BakerRipley I was thinking past the immediate emergency of drastic flooding and stranded people, trying to inventory what assets we had […]
Faith and Hard Work in an Era of Upheaval
(part of a series from the “Shipwrecked Project”)There are many definitions of a hard childhood. By any definition Mario had a hard childhood. A childhood shaped by deprivation and struggle. Mario did not have a complete understanding of the reasons his father abandoned his children and his wife. Though his father at one time served […]
Personal Responsibility
Today a powerful white man in Houston suggested to me that if Black people want to improve their circumstances it’s all about personal responsibility. And that race is an issue only because we keep bringing it up. Everything was fine and we were all getting along before some people made an issue of race. I was […]
NO ONE IS COMING
Houston. Harris County. Being a blue city/region in a red state is really dangerous. If we forget to unite the region in concerted actions – the actions that protect and strengthen us – it will cost us. It’s costing us now. It’s completely fair to say that the virus threat is different in Houston than […]
This is long and boring. About my home and my trees.
The canopies of this water oak and live oak have grown together and now shade the new deck my son built for me. That boring town home used to be sky. I planted both of these trees shortly after I moved to this house in 1996. I had lived a few blocks away in a […]
2016
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 One of our early Houston founding families supported the creation of settlement houses and community centers, because, as he said, “neighbors should live as friends”. I just recently returned from Germany. A country leading the struggle to welcome newcomers, to make a place for over a million Syrian refugees. German […]
TEXAS IS OPEN:
(sort of, except for, kind of, unless, if, but for, not those…)What follows are convo snippets – every one captures the gist of a conversation I’ve had in the last two weeks. In the weeks ahead will see behaviors that reflect every one of these positions and conditions. You can decide now how you’re going […]
EASTER SUNDAY
“Get in the car. Everyone get in the car. Time to go home.” My Mom is herding us like chicks. We’re all piling in the backseat of the station wagon, sweaty and tired. But happy because we all got to ride the Hermann Park train. The grand finale. Went clicking clacking in the rickety kid […]