By JIM NICHOLS I have mentioned before my fascination with the paradoxes of life, the opposites that must be simultaneously true and the tensions that we must accept. Lots of these paradoxes show up in scripture—for example, the last shall be first, Jesus is fully human and fully divine, if you think you can see, you are actually blind. However,

By JIM NICHOLS I suspect that I am not the only one frustrated, angered, confused, and altogether discombobulated by the world today. Frankly, it is difficult not to get discouraged and, I am afraid, let that discouragement lapse over into our spiritual lives. As I fight that concern, I realize that one of my problems is that I am thinking

By JIM NICHOLS Diffusion is a principle considered in many science classes. It is a simple concept, but quite significant in many physical situations. The concept identifies that a substance moves naturally from an area where it is more concentrated to an area where it is less concentrated. For instance, if one puts a spoonful of sugar into a cup

By JIM NICHOLS One way to make people happy is to carry a baby into a store. Taking one of these little ones out of the house was one of my favorite events of being a father. Once they get to be two years old or so the pleasure wears off for everyone (including the two-year-old), but, until then, carrying

By JIM NICHOLS Several mornings we pass each other, sometimes multiple times. I am in my running shoes, shirt, and shorts. The man is driving a white vehicle and the dog is running alongside or behind. This may irritate some of you, but I am not a dog person. This probably started when I was in junior high and had

By JIM NICHOLS My brain is odd because it remembers single phrases that seem to be just the right statement at the right time. Professor Harold Hill was a shyster. He was the “Music Man” from the same-named musical and he traveled from small town to small town (“You Really Ought to Give Iowa a Try”) and duped the townsfolk

By JIM NICHOLS The previous article ended with a suggestion that competition between humans has significant negative consequences; collaboration and cooperation are preferable. As usual, however, suggesting alternatives (collaboration and cooperation) requires identification of their inherent problems also. Working with one another rather than against one another is difficult to accomplish because of our competitive nature. Whether that nature is

By JIM NICHOLS Here comes a compressed story, a punchline, and some reflections. A bit over twenty years ago I moved for a year from teaching to research responsibilities. I was engaged in a research laboratory in Atlanta and was one of several workers in what might be called a “research group.” The group had a boss who was about