When I came to America at the age of 17, I could read a bit of English, but could not speak much of it.
Since I was a budding intellectual of sorts in my native language of Farsi, memorizing Rumi and Hafiz poetry as a child, I decided to compromise by going to engineering school, since I could speak the universal language of mathematics, and secure a list of the top hundred books of Western culture, hoping that by reading them on my own, it would make me an intellectual!
Read MoreIn my 67 years on this planet I’ve seen many shocks to the system: from bloody revolutions that have brought down entrenched dictators, to the fall of the once mighty Soviet Union; from Great Recessions and economic meltdowns to commandeered jets flying into our power centers. So here is my take on the global pandemic we are living through.
Read MoreMay we who are merely inconvenienced
Remember those whose lives are at stake.
May we who have no risk factors
Remember those most vulnerable.
Read MoreFifteen years ago, on March 21, 2005, on the first day of Spring, and Persian New Year, we opened the doors to City Club with construction dust still on the floors and paintings, and 36 brave members who were curious to learn what we were up to. We had no idea what we were doing then, and are still not clear where we are headed now, though we have a few good ideas we are experimenting with.
It has been a long and arduous journey, but in the process, we breathed new life into Highland, and in return, built ourselves a community of passionate and caring people who believe black sheep need a tribe too.
Read MoreIt seems everyone is concerned about the Coronavirus.
Governments are closing borders and quarantining millions of their citizens. People are wearing masks and canceling flights. But most probably, come Spring, we will have the upper hand, the stock market will regain its loses, and we will be back to our normal lives.
Meanwhile, there is another type of pandemic raging through our society and, like Coronavirus, it kills more elderly than any other age group. This pandemic is called loneliness, and it affects 28% of our elderly who live alone and are abandoned by society and their kids, who at best are struggling to earn a living and making ends meet themselves.
Read MoreLike humans, buildings are constantly evolving or dying; appreciating or depreciating. We believe while community is the heart of Highland, history is its soul.
Nearly 130 years after its construction, the historic Highland building is a living, breathing and ever changing structure. Instead of being a relic of the past, Highland strives to stay on the cutting edge of technology, evolving as we change the way we live, work, eat, entertain and socialize.
Read MoreThroughout the ages, Stoics got a bad rap getting associated with doom and gloom. In a nutshell, Stoics believe if every day we spend a few minutes dealing with the worst thing imaginable, something morbid, like death, dying or public shaming, for the rest of the day everything else looks great in comparison. See Steve Smith’s great intro below for more detail.
Read MoreWhile traveling can be full of excitement and adventure, it is often also stressful, expensive and rife with unpleasant surprises. Planning for a great trip is time consuming and the reality on the ground is rarely like the beautiful imagery on the website. Book a tour and the obnoxious guy in the next…
Read MoreHappy Valentine’s day to all.
As usual, Steve Smith does an excellent job of deep diving into a difficult subject like Love, so I want to ask everyone to read Steve’s introduction to get into the spirit of Valentine’s day.
For years and years we promoted the importance of traditions to creating community, and no recorded tradition goes back further than a Sabbath or Shabbat dinner, so we were always proud of our Friday night Happy Hours, till they slowly became stale…
Read MoreWith the holiday season behind us, and many cold days and long nights still ahead, one has a tendency to feel blue. So here is our true and tested remedy: Think gardens; plan trips.
City Club is in the midst of planning a guided trip for ten to Spain, from April 18th to 25th. Mark your calendars now, and as we get closer, we will disclose more details like who is guiding and what this all inclusive trip will cost.
They say a man can live a month without food, a week without water, but not a day without hope.
Dr. Martin Luther King’s I have a Dream sermon is an American classic reminding us we are all in bondage, until and unless we can imagine, dream, or hope for an alternative reality.
Victor Frankel, himself a concentration camp survivor and the author of the classic Man’s Search for Meaning observed the people surviving the camps were not the big and powerful, but the ones who still had a dream they wanted to fulfill. Read the lovely article below on the dream that kept Simon Wiesenthal alive.
You don’t need to be a Bob Seger fan to notice we have been making some night moves at City Club.
From Thursday night music to Friday night happy hours, from Wednesday night classic movies to every night private social events, we are trying our best to bring fun into the long hard days we all put in. Our whimsical gardens are an ideal place to meet with friends…
Read MoreWe start off the new year with an exciting Member Monday discussion on the subject of Humanism, a philosophical and ethical stance focused on doing good and living well in the here and now, rather than following the dictates of a religious order or a supernatural force. The focus article features an interview with Gordon Gamm, Boulder’s noted philanthropist and Humanist raised in the Jewish tradition.
At City Club we do not see a conflict between the two views since Moses knew he could not take slaves to the Promised Land, hence the 40-years of wandering in the desert till they came up with Ten Commandments and 613 laws on how to become free humans, instead of slaves, before dealing with higher concepts like a single God. BTW, not a single slave who left Egypt entered the Promised land, including Moses himself, who lived long enough to peek, but not enter!
Read MoreThe end of a year, and a decade, is a good time to stop, rest, reflect and be thankful for all we have.
Personally I want to express gratitude for my good health, great kids, my good fortune to live in America at a time of relative peace and abundance, have hundreds of close good friends like you, the chance to give back more than I got, and to continue the virtuous cycle I am on.
In the past decade, with your trust, moral and financial help, we turned a crazy idea, to create a Securus Locus, into reality. In the next decade, we will strive to turn Highland City Club into Highland Institute, whatever that turns out to be.
Utopia is not real, but an ideal we strive toward. Utopia is "an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens.” Since City Club aspires to build an ideal community, a Securus Locus if you will, year-end is a good time to slow down and ask ourselves “How are we doing? Are we on track? Are we growing in the right direction? Are we willing to re-commit, or is it time to opt-out?
Personally, I am pleased with where we are headed. We already have so many wonderful offerings such as Steve Smith’s weekly Member Monday deep-dive discussions into so many diverse topics, and Kevin Townley's monthly sessions on topics such as Masonry and Alchemy. I get so much pleasure watching our many young entrepreneurs start and grow families and businesses, and, instead of getting a Christmas card in the mail, Mo Siegel personally handing me the most beautiful book, printed with over 100 color plates of Jesus that he has been working on for over ten years. Such an amazingly diverse community!
Read MoreLike New York and San Francisco, a spare bedroom in Boulder is a rare commodity, and even if one has a large house with a guest room, do we really want to let the parents or the in-laws spend a week underfoot?!
With 300+ members and growing, we constantly get asked if we have a spare townhouse, condo or guesthouse to put up a visiting colleague, an adult child + spouse, parents, and/or in-laws. With 24/7 on-site management, access to food and co-working, this is an ideal place to house visitors at a lower cost than Boulderado and St. Julian hotels.
Read MoreAfter a tour of Highland, a potential member asked how can we justify our prices when our “competition,” meaning Galvanize and WeWork, just cut their prices in half?!
Read MoreIf you have not visited the new Rosetta Hall, you are in for a great surprise. Located at 1109 Walnut in the heart of Boulder, Rosetta Hall is "an iconic, jaw-droppingly gorgeous food hall featuring 10 restaurants & 2 bars.”
One of our goals for the new year is to have more social gatherings in the evening, including movie nights, music nights and Happy Hours. In order to mix it up a bit, we are encouraging our members to meet next Friday 12/6 at 5:30 at Rosetta Hall to eat, drink and mingle with other members and general public.
See you then and there,
Read MoreHelen Keller, the deaf and blind activist was asked by a journalist what she thought would be worse than being born blind? Without missing a beat, she replied “to have sight and no vision.”
Nearly fifteen years after its inception, Highland City Club is finally a social and business success. Every lunch is so packed and the dining room’s energy level so high, the excitement is palpable. So is it time to rest on our laurels and call it good, or should we strive to go from good too great? Should we continue to eat, drink and make more money, or is there more to our original and idealistic vision of making a small dent in the universe?
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