ODB: The Swagger

In the summer of 2015, Hunter (aged 15) carried his brother Braden (8) for a fifty-seven-mile walk to raise awareness of the needs of people with cerebral palsy. Braden weighs sixty pounds, so Hunter needed frequent rest stops where others helped him stretch his muscles, and he wore special harnesses to disperse Braden’s weight. Hunter says that while the harnesses helped with the physical d

ODJ: Laying Down Your Life

In 2011 an earthquake and tsunami caused a catastrophic meltdown of three nuclear reactors in Japan. A massive evacuation ensued, displacing thousands, with a 20 kilometre radius marked as an “exclusion zone”. The cleanup process commenced 5 months later, and 45,000 workers joined the efforts. In 2014 Japanese officials reported that they were dealing with their first case of a worker

ODB: Bringing Light into Darkness

In 1989, Vaclav Havel was elevated from his position as a political prisoner to become the first elected president of Czechoslovakia. Years later at his funeral in Prague in 2011, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who herself was born in Prague, described him as one who had “brought the light to places of deep darkness.”What Havel’s introduction of light did in the

ODJ: Hidden Costs

A security agency set up an open Wi-Fi network in a public area in London. When people connected to the network, they were presented with the usual lengthy terms and conditions. But there was a hidden, devilish catch—a clause stating that users of the Wi-Fi were “giving permanent ownership of the user’s firstborn child” to the agency. Six people clicked right throu

ODB: A Legacy Life

While staying in a hotel in a small town I noticed that the church across the street was having a service. People were jammed into the church with a standing-room-only crowd of both young and old flowing out onto the sidewalk. When I noticed a hearse by the curb, I realized it was a funeral. And given the crowd, I assumed that it was the celebration of the life of some local hero—perhaps a w

ODJ: Limits

My wife and I used to live in a small flat on the sixth floor of a block of flats. We loved its balcony views and simplicity. And there was no garden work to do! But our little home had its problems, one in particular—a limited power supply. The trouble came when running two power-hungry appliances at once. Put the oven on along with the dishwasher and within minutes the fuse would trip and

ODB: Your Father Knows

I was only four years old as I lay by my father on a floor mat on a hot summer night. (My mother, with a baby, had her own room at the time.) This was in northern Ghana where the climate is mostly dry. Sweat covered my body, and the heat parched my throat. I felt so thirsty I shook my father awake. In the middle of that dry night, he rose up and poured water from a jar for me to quench my thirst.

ODJ: Healing Prayer

After learning that a 7 year old boy dying of leukaemia wanted to be a police officer, several members of the Arizona Police made every effort to make his wish come true. Just days before he died, they made him an honorary officer—including his own law enforcement hat and junior-sized police uniform. That one wish launched a movement. Make-A-Wish, an international organisation that

ODB: When We Don’t Understand

Although I depend on technology every day to get my job done, I don’t understand much about how it works. I turn my computer on, bring up a Word document, and get to work on my writing. Yet my inability to comprehend how microchips, hard drives, Wi-Fi connections, and full-color displays actually function doesn’t get in the way of my benefiting from technology.In a sense, this mirrors