Why look back to Marcus Aurelius and Stoicism? Huh? Why would we want to return to one of the last Roman Emperors and a Greek philosophy which personified rigorous self-denial, extreme fortitude and emotional indifference? One of the very first books I devoured as a college undergrad was Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. A college professor I […]
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We have all spent time doing it: Looking for heroes in all the wrong places. Our movies and music reflect and sometimes magnify that desire to find someone who is an authentic hero. While watching Wonder Woman, we love imagining a woman with extraordinary physical and mental abilities. Maybe even a little identification with her.
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Sleeping with Seymour-our Lab/Pug rescue mix “This is the new dog? I thought you wanted another Dobie?” “Yes, this is Seymour. Yes, you’re right, I did want another Doberman.” I was still somewhat dazed at this little guy who had wormed his way into my heart and our life. Kori, owner of the dog food
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“Could you do that?” The implication of the question: “Could you sacrifice yourself? Could you do that? My friend and I were watching the recently released film, Megan Leavey and were asking one another if we could lead a platoon of marines as they crossed an IED riddled land which looks like the face of the moon:
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Got a minute? To figure out out what to do with the rest of your life? It shouldn’t be difficult, right? And yet, we know scores of people who feel trapped in a dead-end job or loveless marriage or say they have no reason to get out of bed in the mornings. Keep reading and
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If you are unhappy Do an online search of the most popular topics for blog posts and you’ll find happiness to be among the top ten. But that isn’t the way to conceive of happiness. We need to change our way of thinking about happiness by coming at it through the back door and talk
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Overcoming anger: the final spiritual struggle We feel it everywhere: Anger. Whether a seething whisper or bellowing roar, resentment, anger, even rage, feels like the fuel of this brand new year as the second decade of the twenty-first century heads south. The source is anyone’s claim. An endless laundry list of injustice, victims and causes.
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Ever since the industrial revolution, futurists have been forecasting the end of work. Recently, journalist Derek Thompson wrote in Atlantic Monthly about the immanence of widespread joblessness from the perspective of Youngstown, Ohio. For most of the last century, Youngstown boasted one of the more prosperous economies in the country, mostly due to the flourishing
Revolutions: seen and unseen We think of uprisings, upheavals, often political like the American and French Revolutions. Of the earth’s rotation around the sun or of Mary’s reply to Elizabeth’s , “And why am I so favored that the mother of our Lord should come to me?” Not so much. Or never. December twenty-first was
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Happiness: Feeling or decision? “So, how exactly, do you decide to be happy?” My friend looked bemusedly at me as she replied to my statement that I thought happiness was a decision we made. “LOOK at that tree!” I exclaimed loudly and with vehemence, knowing that my reply to her question required more than a
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