One of my favorite essays is the Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis. It is quoted often, thus I shall not need to repeat it here – if you are unfamiliar with this great work I encourage you to stop now and acquire a copy with haste. Yet, even so, I see an element unfinished…
Category: Random Thoughts
Thinking outside the box begins with, well, somewhat random thoughts. So this is where things go until or unless they should go elsewhere.
Broken in 67 Places
I am angry. I’m frustrated. But most of all I mourn a loss I cannot wrap my heart and head around. Not the kind of morning I’m used to, not the kind of mourning like when my friend died after we had played together in a band. Not the kind of sadness after the passing…
An Armchair Theologian’s Nativity Ephiphany
Ever wish you could just sit down with some ancient sage and ask some tough questions over a beer? I had a number of good theological conversations this year, perhaps importantly as the first time since my pandemic-induced hibernation that dialogue has started to thaw and people are actually meeting for lunch and beers after…
A Call to Action via Modular Collaboration
Practice makes perfect, well, sort of. Unfortunately, very few technical professions take the word “practice” literally. I have always considered it uncomfortably necessary to think of a doctor as having a “practice”, yet am comforted by two things: first that the doctor is constantly learning and second that my situation has the potential to be slightly…
Slinging Wisdom – The Tyranny of Brevity
Every year for the past 20+ years, since I was first introduced to Dr King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” I have endeavored to read one of his letters on “MLK-J Day.” This introduced me to one of my favorite works of literature, his 1967 Christmas Sermon where he noted, ironically, that “our world is…
The Paradox of Quick Learning: A Journey of Continuous Diligence
This article is reposted and expanded (slightly) from the original on my LinkedIn profile, here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/paradox-quick-learning-journey-continuous-diligence-john-stough-slvje/ I have been accused in the past, in fact the very recent past, of being a “quick learner”. This would be a mistaken label, I fear, and I would offer some advice to save you from a perilous journey…
Enterprise Architecture for the World’s Largest Aviation Fleet
I recently had the privilege of publishing an article on the Architecture & Governance magazine for our work in Army PEO Aviation. Read it here:https://www.architectureandgovernance.com/elevating-ea/enterprise-architecture-for-the-worlds-largest-aviation-fleet/
Social Distancing is No Heaven
I was never much one to believe in the angel focused movies and stories, you know “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Touched By An Angel,” that paint heaven as a formless place where we are headed forever while earth is a separate and dirty corporeal realm that these angelic beings come to visit. Of course,…
MIT Entrepreneur Bootcamp!
I just started an MIT Entrepreneur Bootcamp! It’s been great so far and I like being in the distributed collaborative environment. It’s funny, really, I have been involved with several startups, was in an incubator for a while (more about that later, perhaps), and even helped establish an Innovation Challenge project for the Army Virtual…
Asymmetrical Life – an open letter to you, Mirror.
Oh Mirror, You have reflected back to me a part of my life that had suffered from deep and systemic atrophy. I think that most of us live in a constant state of low-grade turmoil. OK, for some that is not so low-grade, but it certainly ebbs and flows regardless of what the center-line is. …
Death by Chocolate
Some dogs are allergic to chocolate. Not our ‘Beagle Bailey’! We first discovered this at Christmas several years ago when the gift for my wife, a pound of imported Belgian chocolate, was consumed during an evening out. Entering the front door, we were greeted by a year old beagle racing laps around the living room,…
That Trip to Estes Park…
One of these days, I am going to write about the trip to Estes Park, Colorado. This is a placeholder for me to write about that time I went snow shoe hiking after 6 foot of fresh snow fell… and we got lost in the mountains… but for now, just the full image for the start…
Exocubic 