Craig Ruvere

29Mar 2023 by CJ

Gun Violence Has Normalized – A Lack of Empathy is To Blame

By now, I'm sure you're all aware of our nation's latest school shooting, which occurred at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, earlier this week. Many of us are angry, horrified, and deeply troubled that the lives of those so young were tragically robbed of their future (and let's not forget those adults whose lives were abruptly cut short as well). These are feelings we've all experience far too often over the years as gun violence has normalized throughout America. I want to focus on and further discuss the realities of how gun violence has normalized and why this most recent shooting in Nashville will be forgotten sooner than it should be until the next school shooting comes along. Dictionary.com defines "to normalize" as "causing something previously considered abnormal…

16Mar 2023 by CJ

Insecure Leaders Often Limit Employee Contributions

Information & Education

Did you ever wonder what it means to work with insecure leaders? Let's first start off with a quote from internationally known thought leader Britt Andreatta who writes, "Exclusion lights up the same regions of the brain as physical pain." I read Andreatta's words repeatedly, eventually going from confusion to frustration after realizing her meaning and its applicability to my life. After all the years of managers and supervisors telling me that exclusion is not personal it's just business, one short sentence forever vindicates me of my inner feelings towards the subject. In other words, if I'm wondering why exclusion sometimes feels so unbearable in the workplace, that's because science reveals that our brains associate that feeling with physical pain - which we all know can impair us and be…

20Feb 2023 by CJ

Narcissistic Personality Disorder Has No Place in Our Government

Life & Living

Lately, I've been determined to limit my daily news intake to maintain some level of sanity while witnessing what often feels like a bad reality show playing out in our governmental institutions. So many of today's political leaders are an embarrassment to our country and themselves – diminishing the credibility and respectability of our nation across the global arena. While I'm not a certified mental health care provider, one doesn't need such a certification to diagnose these politicians as suffering from narcissistic personality disorder. Let me first say that I'm neither a Republican nor a Democrat. In truth, I cast my vote based not only on proposed policies and philosophies but more on the integrity and morality of a politician. Today, more than at any other time in our nation's…

08Feb 2023 by CJ

Simpler Living Is a Mindset Old Souls Understand

Generosity & Kindness, Life & Living

American writer Laura Ingalls Wilder once remarked, "I believe we would be happier to have a personal revolution in our individual lives and go back to simpler living and more direct thinking. It is the simple things of life that make living worthwhile, the sweet fundamental things such as love and duty, work and rest, and living close to nature." For me, simpler living is a way of life I witnessed, cultivated, and adopted through the invaluable and countless occasions I happily shared with my grandparents. I can evoke memories of sitting around my grandparent's kitchen table, pouring cups of freshly brewed tea from an ivory ceramic pot while munching on cookies or other sweet treats my grandmother placed on a coordinating dinner plate. We'd communicate stories about our days,…

25Jan 2023 by CJ

The Purpose of Learning Is Growth Which Can Change the World

Information & Education

I've been fortunate to spend the last 22 years wedded to a high school special education teacher who has not only inspired countless students who've sat inside her classroom but myself as well, with the conviction that the purpose of learning is growth. Along with that conviction, she encourages empathy and compassion among her students, to be respectful of each other's differences, and humble in our relations. All with the understanding that advancing and expanding one's ignorance is how meaningful transformations and solutions are created in our homes, communities, and the world. In June of 2012, she was honored with her school district's Teacher of The Year award, something she regularly and modestly overlooks. We worked together on the speech she delivered during their high school graduation ceremony,…