Responsibility
There seems to be an air of helplessness in the world today, rather than responsibility. If you watch the news you’ll be scared half to death by any number of things. Lately, politics and coronavirus are the most pressing, so I’ll use those as a jumping off point. In many of my recent conversations about politics, the eventual conclusion we’ve arrived at is “it’s all a mess and there’s no way
Web of delusion and non-attachment
I have a friend who has been unofficially diagnosed with schizophrenia. He doesn’t get psychiatric help or take medication, and his symptoms make it difficult for him to work and have a social life. One of the most difficult aspects for him are the constant delusions he suffers from. For example, my friend believes that a life-like crucifix on display at the Detroit Institute of Art isn’t just a statue,
Goals: Building your Path
This time of year is pure magic. I’m not talking about the holidays. Those are over. I’m talking about the potential of the new year. Many of us use this time to look back on the previous year, see what we did well and what we could have done better, evaluate our goals then decide how to evolve. In the past years I’ve talked about the importance of setting goals. This
Perspective
I recently heard a great story about perspective that I will paraphrase here. View from the toll booth A man was approaching a line of tollbooths on the freeway in San Francisco. He began to dread the most mundane, sometimes depressing kind of interaction that you get with someone stuck in a toll booth. Yet when he rolled down his window, he heard loud music playing. Upon arriving at his lane’s booth,
Choking in Martial Arts
When I was young I used to choke a lot. I mean this both in the physical sense (me choking on something, not choking someone else as we do in the adult martial arts classes) and the mental sense. For instance, I used to be totally incapable of taking pills. I would psyche myself out and gag on them, so my mom had to grind them up and hide them
