Aug 25, 2021How to Shift Our Focus and Live a Substantive LifeIt could be said that half of us want to live the unexamined life, assimilating into the culture, and half of us want to write our own marching orders. It’s not so easy, though, to be an original, to bring to bear the autonomy of self-possession. How we have…Philosophy6 min readPhilosophy6 min read
Mar 30, 2021Building a Life Worth LivingMore than 2500 years ago the philosopher, Socrates, asserted that the unexamined life was not worth living. He predicted that we’ll be forever discontent if we don’t investigate, articulate and reconcile the struggle between the natural life force that we are with what the world wants us to do. Until…Philosophy4 min readPhilosophy4 min read
Dec 8, 2020A Call for Respect and DecencyAccusatory, nightmarish and alarmist visions front-page our printed newspapers, transmit from our airwaves and blanket our digital world. We are informed about corruption, exploitation, bigotry and a long list of other malfeasance in the corridors of local and national political and corporate power. Communication is often vulgar, hypocritical and intolerant…Philosophy4 min readPhilosophy4 min read
Sep 29, 2020Are You Fighting the Good Fight?Though one would think there’d be no shortage of information about the right stuff that human beings need to know, and like to know, it turns out there is little data of import about the significant place the good fight has in our lives. Just how disappointing, meaningless and unfair…Philosophy5 min readPhilosophy5 min read
Mar 24, 2020Member-onlyHow to Best Meet the Challenge of These Stormy DaysDo the Right Thing Stormy days are upon us. These are volatile frightening times. We find ourselves in a global crisis that also hits close to home. Though the proverbial “the world is going to hell in a handbasket,” rings true, we can’t sidle over to the dark side…Philosophy5 min readPhilosophy5 min read
Feb 18, 2020Designing a Stable, Artful and Agreeable Life in Irrational TimesThe promise of humanity lies in its bold spirit. We each have the ability to think, feel and imagine and to climb the ladder of transcendence. And we each have the ability to give honest and artful expression to the struggle to matter, to make order, to care. Indeed, each…Philosophy5 min readPhilosophy5 min read
Jan 21, 2020Member-onlyA New Framework for Seeing Clearly, Thinking Freely and Loving Your Life10 Brief Lessons in Autonomy — The usefulness of our inquiries into “how should we live,” and “how to achieve our country” depends in large part on our willingness to see clearly, think freely and act accordingly. That is, we must take full advantage of America’s emancipation of our minds. Of course, learning how to employ…Philosophy5 min readPhilosophy5 min read
Dec 17, 2019Member-onlyWhy It’s So Important to Know Your Own MindIt always was and probably always will be evolving wisdom, aptitude and the clash of wills that inspire and guide humanity’s long journey from its brute state to the poetic light of the heavens. But we don’t get from that place where we were originally inserted and situated into a…Philosophy3 min readPhilosophy3 min read
Nov 19, 2019Member-onlyThe Importance of Learning to Sit StillIn the Summer 2014 issue of The Hedgehog Review: Critical Reflections on Contemporary Culture, Mark Edmundson, of the University of Virginia, addresses the happiness we forsake when we are too distracted to be absorbed in something we love. In service of his point, he references William Wordsworth who had the…Philosophy4 min readPhilosophy4 min read
Oct 22, 2019Member-onlyRevealing the Means to Living an Original, Creative and Examined LifeLiving the examined life is not so easy. To be an original, to create a life of your own design, to parse, weigh and scale where and how you can best contribute is not so easy. To write your own marching orders, to look and ponder, to surmise and re-evaluate…Philosophy5 min readPhilosophy5 min read
