Easter in Ordinary

Mature, public conversation about issues that matter is foundational for democratic society. I am delighted that Mark Zuckerberg's " A Year of Books " offers such an opportunity. To contribute to that dialog, I will offer commentary on each of the readings proposed by Zuckerberg. There is something fascinating about old buildings, especially big, industrial style buildings. "Old," as a word, is rather vague, in this sense, occasionally something quite distinct from the chronological. Seeing old factories, like the remnants of the Studebaker factory in South Bend, hint at bygone days of industry. I have wanted to understand these buildings, and the people who once inhabited them. Jon Gertner 's The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation is a marvelous introduction to the people and spirit and place of Bell Labs . It breathes with more than nostalgia for this earlier era. Published in 2012, The Idea Factory tells the history ...

This has been my week for reading Nobel laureates. Today, I read James J. Heckman 's Giving Kids a Fair Chance: A Strategy that Works . Heckman, the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, was a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences in 2000. While one might imagine complex formulas mathematical scenarios and unduly long phraseology from a Nobel Prize-winning economist writing about early-childhood interventions, in fact, Giving Kids a Fair Chance is not a difficult read. The slim volume is just 137 pages of content. The first 43 pages are from Professor Heckman, and the remainder include 10 replies to Heckman's work from various authorities, with Heckman having the concluding word. In fact, the work is eminently readable. Heckman and his respondents are passionate about children. The respondents themselves read like a who's who among people concerned about children: Mike Rose , Robin West , Charles Murra...

Currently, I am seeking work. This period of time between my life in the Congregation of Holy Cross and a new labor has also afforded the opportunity to read. I have long been interested in micro-lending and the work of Muhammad Yunus. I had time this week to read two of his books: Banker to the Poor (BTTP), written in 2003, and 2007's Creating a World Without Poverty (CWWP). Reading chronologically, I began with Banker to the Poor . Briefly, Muhammad Yunus, a Muslim from near Chittagong in what was then the British Raj, earned a Ph.D. at Vanderbuilt University, taught in the U.S. early in his career, and returned to teach at Chittagong University after Bangladesh achieved independence. He rose to be chair of the economics department. Amid an enormous famine in 1974, Yunus "kept trying to bring the academic world and the village together" (BTTP, 37). Eventually, he discover micro-lending as a means to improve the plight of actual poor people he met. Muhammad Yun...