banter

Welcome to my blog, Banter.

I’ll start, you chime in—I really want to hear from you!

Kate Bennis Kate Bennis

The Courage to Ask Ourselves

When Charles and Elizabeth Handy were a young couple, they lived in Malaysia where Charles worked for an oil company.

He was doing everything “right”—married, a stable job, with plans for children, a house, the whole package.

One day, his canny and remarkable wife, Elizabeth asked him a few questions he had never asked himself:

  • Are you genuinely happy?

  • Do you love your work? Are you proud of what you do?

  • Is our marriage together what you dreamed of?

To each question Charles answered, “It’s OK.”

Liz would have none of that. She knew...Read on.

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Kate Bennis Kate Bennis

Brevity

At a memorial service for my father at the University of Cincinnati, a man, now in his 60s, told a story I’d never heard. Every week for four years, my father hired a student to drive him 1.5 hours to Columbus to meet with the Ohio State University system and the Governor. One week, the Ohio system would present their arguments for denying the University of Cincinnati entrance into the system. The next, my father would present his position. This man, then a student/driver, remembered a week when the Ohio System reps spoke with slides and graphs and mimeographed handouts for 2.5 hours. The next week, my father spoke for less than two minutes saying something like: “The purpose of higher education is to… Read on.

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