Our vivacious, ever-so-verbal, 2-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter, Esmee, told Santa Claus the other day that she wanted a yo-yo and a hammer for Christmas. … Should Santa comply, I’m a little worried about what that hammer might do around the house. Read more»

Kermit the Frog once said so eloquently, “It's not that easy being green.” Sometimes you'd like to be something nicer, like red, or yellow or gold or something much more colorful like that.” Read more»

Watch President Eaton's new video on the biblical imagination and God's "grand, sweeping story."

I am worried. I am worried that people are worried. I am worried that people seem to have lost a sense of optimism. I know that can seem such a sweeping statement ...
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President Eaton braves a Seattle rain in his newest video that explores where joy, mystery, and beauty meet.

A few of my students have given me a bad time for ragging on texting. They want me to lighten up about texting. They want me to join the real world of new writing. And I am reluctant. Read more»

William Strunk? E.B. White? The Elements Of Style? Does anyone remember those names? Does anyone anymore recognize this little book as one of the shaping forces of good writing for the last 50 years? Read more»

I’ve been delighted by the amount and quality of the responses to these blog posts. Thank you for challenging me, for opening up my blind spots, for filling in the vacant spaces in the things I am trying to think through too. Read more»

When John G. Roberts was nominated to become the Chief Justice of the United States, politicians and major media outlets were concerned because he was a devout Catholic. Why should they be? Read more»

Watch President Eaton's newest video about his conversation with a Starbucks barista on the topic of text messaging. Are we in danger of losing our ability to read and to write sophisticated text? Read more»

Lincoln believed that good language could not only capture ideas, but it could communicate, motivate, clarify, encourage. Good language could move the nation toward understanding its own identity. Read more»

Could core themes for American democracy, as described in the 1800s by Alexis de Tocqueville, help explain at least some of the heated debate about health care? Read more»

It has been a few weeks since I’ve been able to write a post for this blog. I am sorry. I have missed the conversation and the chance to reflect on things from my study on Saturday mornings. Read more»

Watch President Philip W. Eaton’s newest video describing why the best learning takes place in community. He includes thoughts on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic book, Life Together.

It seems like a lot of people are dying these days. I had that thought this morning as Sharon and I watched the funeral mass in Boston for Senator Ted Kennedy. And I found myself thinking about the lives that have stepped off the stage in the last few months and years... Read more»

We’ve got to focus on what matters. These thoughts all came into clearer focus for me over the weekend while I was sitting in a vibrant worship service at the Lawndale Community Church in Chicago’s Westside. Read more»

Is it possible that cooking good food can change the world? Or that eating such wonderful food could change our lives? Sounds a little preposterous, I know, but I thought about these questions last night. Read more »

I am taking a few days of vacation in August, and I love it. Once we get into a break like this, we suddenly realize how much we need it. I’m sure you know what I mean. Read more»

The late, great Jewish novelist Chaim Potok said on my campus some years ago that “we live in a world of colliding maps.” I think he is absolutely right about that, though I don’t always like it. Read more»

I find myself imagining the hundreds of thousands of scientists, engineers, managers, office personnel, and executives it took to put two men on the moon. That was forty years ago today, July 20, 1969. Read more»