Shelter in Place
“When we talk about Alzheimer’s, about amnesia and memory loss, we skip over something important. People suffering from this not only forget what was, but they are also completely incapable of making plans, even for the near future. In fact, the first thing that goes in memory loss is the very concept of the future.”(Georgi Gospodinov, Time…
Oh, My Papa…
Click to listen to this essay “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astounded at how much he had learned in seven years.” (Mark Twain) “The quality of a child’s relationship…
One Good Thing About Pain: It Lets You Know that You’re Still Alive…
“Who, except the gods/can live time throughforever without any pain?” (Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 458mB.C.) “Pain and death are part of life. To reject them isto reject life itself.” (Havelock Ellis, “On Life and Sex Essays of Life and Virtue,” 1937) “Who breathes must suffer, and who thinks must mourn/ And he alone is blessed who ne’er…
Perhaps the Greatest Wisdom a Person Can Have is Knowing What They Don’t Know…
Click to listen to a recording of this essay “Awareness of ignorance is the beginning of wisdom.”(Socrates) “To know that we know what we know and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.”(Nicolaus Copernicus) “The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I…
What’s Good for You May Not Be Good for Me. And, Vice Versa…
“Quod ali cibus est allis fuat acre venenum.’’(‘’What is food for one man may be bitter poison toothers.”). (Titus Lucretius Carus, Ist Century BC) “It is an old axiom, and well said, that Beauty is in theeye of the beholder.” (Margaret Wolfe Hungerford) “Different strokes for different folks.”(Coined by urban blacks in the 1950s, popularized…
I’m Not Really Superstitious, Just Trying to Avoid Bad Luck…
“Step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back.” (Anonymous) “Superstition: A belief or way of thinking thatis based on fear of the unknown and faith in magicor luck.” (Webster’s Dictionary) “The three good-luck superstitions polled that thelargest share of Americans say they believe in aremaking a wish while blowing out birthday candles(28%), seeing a…
Rules of Thumb: Guessing with Precision
“There is no rule without an exception.” (Thomas Fuller, MD, Gnomologia, 1732) “No rule is so general, which admits not some exception.” (Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621) “A rule of thumb is a homespun recipe formaking a guess. It’s an easy-to-rememberguide that falls somewhere between amathematical formula and a shot in the dark.”…
The Meaning of Life: An Addendum
“To find yourself, you first need to decide if atyour core you are a discovery theorist or acreation theorist: whether your essence alreadyexists, but you need to discover and understandit — or whether it has yet to come into existenceand you need to create it through your choices,beliefs and actions.” (Arthur Brooks, “Three Paths Toward…
What’s It All About, Alfie?
“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” The Dalai Lama “I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.” George Bernard…
Homer Lee Meade II: The Evolution of a Civil Rights Pioneer
Listen to a recording of this essay “One ever feels his twoness — an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body, whose strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.” (W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk) “When I discover who I am,…
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