I was recently lucky enough to be able to talk about the magic of theater in a podcast conversation with writer, playwright, and Wise & Shine colleague, Jack Canfora. As we talked about the powerful feeling of a night in the theater when it all comes together and just works, he told me a story about Laurence Olivier and young Maggie Smith. After a night … Continue reading Do It Again: The Gift of Having to Repeat Ourselves
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, … Continue reading Great First Lines
It can be difficult to say goodbye to our pets, but can we be guilty of avoiding the necessary? Continue reading When Its Time To Say Goodbye To Our Furbabies
I don’t think this is going to be anything like any of my other blogs. Actually, I’m not for sure what this is going to look like or how it might turn out. That’s why I’m calling it an “experiment.” I will conduct my experiment by asking a series of personal, self-discovery questions and then answering them. Each response will be used to generate another … Continue reading Repost: Experimenting with Self-Discovery in Real Time
It’s funny the things that I read that stick with me. I’m thinking of a post about 15 years ago from a high school friend on Facebook that said something like, “I notice that there are some people whose only activity here is posting and they don’t spend any time liking or commenting on other people’s stuff.” My friend was a year older than me … Continue reading Do You Like My Writing Or Are We Just Friends?
One cause of depression turns out to be spending one’s time in work that isn’t meaningful. But what does “not meaningful” mean, and how and why does it contribute to depression? As I’ve written about previously, there are at least six types of social-environmental causes of depression, helpfully cataloged and discussed by Johann Hari in Lost Connections (read my post about the book here). One … Continue reading Depression and Disconnection from Meaningful Work
This post (or page), which will continue to be updated, organizes links to my series of posts relating to depression’s causes, possible solutions, and Johann Hari’s “Lost Connections” Continue reading This Series of Posts Concerning Depression’s Social-Environmental Causes, Solutions, and Johann Hari’s “Lost Connections”
Note: A version of this post was published earlier. As America gears up for the 2024 presidential campaign, a variety of Republican contenders, chief among them Ron DeSantis, are doing their absolute best to dethrone the Grand Poohbah, otherwise known as “The Donald,” the man who gives lie to the statement “It can’t happen here.” To achieve this difficult task, these campaigners are going … Continue reading Let’s Talk and Think about Skin Color
The other day I landed on a blog post and as I scrolled down to add a comment, I saw that there were already 41 comments. That set me back on my heels. What else could I possibly add to the conversation? Funny how a number can spark self-doubt. It’s like joining a big group of people at a party that have already been talking … Continue reading The Art of the Comment
The beauty that goes hand in hand with drama. It lurks around every corner of life, in unforeseen events, political upheavals, and human encounters. Continue reading The unbearable lightness of life
Our identity is fundamental to who we are, but have you ever stopped to think about the range of factors that shape who we are. Come and explore that with me now. Continue reading Understanding the multi-faceted nature of Identity
Before I get into the body of this piece, I’d like to say that the conflict in Ukraine is especially interesting and tragic because I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Poland during the mid-nineties, not long after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was sent to Rzeczpospolita Polska—I still remember quite a lot of Polish—to … Continue reading Repost: What Vladimir Putin’s War Has Taught Me
The other day my wife and I took our kids to Gardens by the Bay – one of the major tourist attractions here in Singapore. If you’ve not heard of it, it’s a stunning nature park spanning 100 acres. It sits adjacent to the famous Marina Bay Sands hotel. Inside the gardens are two massive temperature-controlled dome-shaped glass conservatories. One is known as the cloud … Continue reading Fun Facts and a Dystopian Fiction
I often like to use the word ‘philosophy’ in a somewhat unusual way. What I mean is philosophy understood as a craft, skill, or art of living. This is, actually, how philosophy was originally understood and practiced, in the ancient Greek and Roman periods of what we now call Western philosophy. That understanding, and even that practice, has never completely gone away. It has, however, … Continue reading Philosophy as an Art of Living
My kids have been clamoring for me to tell them stories at bedtime. They don’t want made up stories, they want real stories from my lives and their lives. Since they are seven years old and three years old, they are still early in their own stories so there isn’t a lot to mine there. But they love the stories about Simon the Bad Cat. … Continue reading The Archetypes of Story
Well, here we go again. I’m about to advocate not doing work. It seems I do this fairly often. But it’s not that I’m lazy or against giving an effort, it’s just that sometimes the best effort involves making no effort. In other words- breaks are good and we should take them without beating ourselves up over it. For example, I’ve been on vacation all … Continue reading No Effort, No Problem?
No one talks about the benefits of depression, do they? No one talks about how depression might happen for a good reason. Most people assume it’s nothing but a bad thing. A product of low courage. A cancer of the mind. And perhaps it is? When you examine depression on paper, it’s difficult to argue otherwise. I mean, I hardly need to outline the costs … Continue reading The Surprising Benefits of Depression
I was talking with author Lois Roelofs about her newly released book, Marv Taking Charge, and she made the comment that she started blogging back in the day because she was told she needed a platform. As an aside, she said, “Whatever a platform is.” Right – whatever a platform is. Presumably, some sort of online presence so that we can meet and share what … Continue reading Building a Platform
Knowing oneself is, to me, the key to the path of spirituality or on the ladder of awareness. Continue reading The art of knowing oneself
Exactly one week ago, on Saturday morning, my wife and I got into the backseat of my father and stepmother’s car, in Georgetown, Texas, pulled out of their garage, and headed eastward, to make the hour-long trip to the small town of Rockdale, Texas, population 5,323. Our goal was to attend a memorial service to commemorate the life of my uncle, a man I’d always … Continue reading A Sad Day, a Happy Day
