MSI Press Blog

  Today's meditation from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Dr. Frederic Craigie. -13-   Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.   Miles Davis   I am a self-taught fiddle player. I think of myself as “intermediate.” If you know traditional American music and heard me play Whiskey Before Breakfast, you’d probably at least recognize the tune, but you would not steer me in the direction of a recording contract. After many years of trying to find my own way, I decided to take some lessons. Perhaps learning some of the foundational aspects of fiddle playing—how to position and hold the instrument, how to grasp and move the bow—would help me take it to the next level. I knew I didn’t want violin lessons (yes, with some minor modifications: the “violin” and “fiddle” are the same instrument, but the approach to music is worlds apart), and I found a teacher who is a lover of old-time ...

  Today's meditation from  Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living   by Dr. Frederic Craigie. -12-   We don’t live for happiness; we live for holiness. Day to day, we seek out pleasure, but deep down, human beings are endowed with moral imagination. All human beings seek to lead lives, not just of pleasure, but of purpose, righteousness, and virtue. As John Stuart Mill put it, people have a responsibility to become more moral over time. The best life is oriented around the increasing excellence of the soul and is nourished by moral joy, the quiet sense of gratitude and tranquility that comes as a byproduct of successful moral struggle.   David Brooks   Michael Kent grew up among the few white people in a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he was bullied by black children and his mother was assaulted by a black man. He became increasingly hateful of black people and eventually found ...

What is a book jewel? A sometimes-overlooked book with remarkable insight and potential significance. Each month, we share near-daily, or as often as possible, reviews of the monthly book jewel - short, succinct reviews that can be read in 1-2 minutes with links to the reviewer by reviewers whose words are worthy of being heard and whose opinions are worthy of being considered. Sometimes a couple of minutes contains more impressive thought than ten times that many. We will let you decide that. This month's book jewel is  Road Map to Power  by Syed and Darius Husain . Description What is the true source of authentic power? Offering a detour from the dead end of this "buy more, be more" culture, the authors demonstrate why the traditional routes to power are accessible only for an elite few. Wrapping warm, profound stories of empowerment around an extensive body of research, Road Map to Power is your guide to a life of dignity, satisfaction, and happiness. keywords: authent...