Author: The Foundation for a Better Life
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The longest race: How Major Taylor pushed against prejudice to become a cycling champion
Marshall “Major” Taylor was the son of a Black Civil War veteran who fought for the emancipation of enslaved people. As a young boy, he was befriended by the son of his father’s employer and the two spent time reading and studying together and riding bicycles. To Taylor, as an 8-year-old boy, the freedom, speed…
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The courage to forgive and rebuild
To have been around Abraham Lincoln during his lifetime was sometimes described as being in awe of the man. His towering height, topped with a stovepipe hat, made him a formidable presence. His angular, lanky body was a stark contrast to many of the rounder and shorter politicians of the day. But the weight of…
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Building human connection in a virtual world
Technology has been the great divider in many communities. Innovations happened so fast that the old way of doing things 20 years ago felt like a centuries-wide gap. Senior citizens were becoming sequestered because of the language and technology disparity. Daily banking, neighborhood communication, even shopping became more difficult for those who grew up relying…
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Putting things together in a jumbled world
Many who are aware that Ingvar Kamprad has dyslexia like to joke that he had a brilliant “idea” for a furniture company and misspelled it “ikea.” The delightful and humble Ingvar would be amused. After all, he accepted the condition as the impetus of his genius — and while the learning challenge wasn’t the reason…
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How a clockmaker changed the world of navigation
“Dead reckoning” is one of the most common terms uttered by swashbuckling captains in pirate movies. In the early 1700s, it meant using primitive tools like the astrolabe and compass to chart a course across the sea. The term is probably shorthand for “deduced” reckoning — but in practice, it sometimes took on a more…
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Temple Grandin’s autism became her strength
Seeing the world from a different perspective adds insight into how we interpret our lives. For Temple Grandin, it meant first understanding why she saw the world in such a unique way. Born in 1947 in Boston, Grandin arrived at a time when little was known about autism. She was diagnosed at the age of…
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Wife of Muhammad Ali continues to carry the light of compassion
“I met Muhammad when I was 6 years old,” Yolanda Ali remembers. “I knew then that there was something special about him. Just the way he carried himself, the way he treated people.” Yolanda Ali would eventually marry the man who graced the cover of seemingly every magazine throughout a career that took him from…
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Sir Edward Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited Everest together. For 50 years, neither would say who stepped atop first, preferring to share the credit.
Edmund Hillary, a humble and witty beekeeper from New Zealand, was also one of the most accomplished mountaineers in the world. It was 1953, and Sir John Hunt brought military discipline to an expedition in competition with the Swiss. He handpicked Hillary and organized a conquering party of 350 porters, 20 Sherpas and tons of…
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Learning how to be a better human by connecting with Muppets
Unlikely as it may seem, one of the Smithsonian Museum’s most cherished objects is a frog puppet fashioned from a coat that belonged to Jim Henson’s mother, with a ping pong ball cut in half for eyes and a blue-jeans leg trimmed to hide the puppeteer’s arm. The frog is as popular as George Washington’s…
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Learning how to be a better human by connecting with Muppets
Unlikely as it may seem, one of the Smithsonian Museum’s most cherished objects is a frog puppet fashioned from a coat that belonged to Jim Henson’s mother, with a ping pong ball cut in half for eyes and a blue-jeans leg trimmed to hide the puppeteer’s arm. The frog is as popular as George Washington’s…