One thing I know about happiness is that it comes from the narrative of our life. The story we tell ourselves. But too often, we let others write that story for us. Unhappiness and discontent inevitably follow. The only person who can write the story of your life properly is you. In order to change our narrative to an authentic one, one we write ourselves, we must change our perspective, and thus our perceptions of our world. This is not a new idea. Plato explained it in “Allegory of the Cave” over 2,300 years ago. A small change in perception can mean a huge change in what we see. And changing how we see lets us write a new narrative. The Dalai Lama also explores this idea of the relationship between perception and a good life in his book The Art of Happiness (99¢ in the remainder bin . . . maybe you can buy happiness after all!).
I have to give Donald Trump credit. His presidency is truly historic, and future academics will be riding the Trump train through graduate schools in record numbers. Of course, he and his supporters disagree with me on why his administration is historic. They point to what he has done as success stories while I think […]
The Trump Lies Never End Read More »
Denis Leary had a song in his one-man show “No Cure for Cancer” called Asshole. In it, he details examples of people he considers eligible for the tainted designation. A lot of observational standup comedy is devoted to complaints about assholes. Anal oriented individuals certainly don’t appear to be an endangered species. Which is too
The Reason There are so Many A******s in the World Read More »
“I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” the stranger said as she handed me back whatever papers I had just shown her. She had a name tag but I couldn’t read it because I was too busy trying not to cry. If I had a dollar every time I have heard that phrase in the month
The Unwanted Journey: Part 2 Read More »
,It’s been a whole month since our last serious school shooting (Florida). I think it’s safe, nay required, to say that our fearless (“I’d run in there even if I was unarmed”) leader deserves massive credit for his prompt action in handling the school shootings in this country. He has met the problem head on
Reading, Writing, and Rifles: Arming Teachers Read More »
Two of my regular readers have noticed my absence from these pages and wonder what’s going on. The answer is that I lost one of my three faithful readers. For any writer that is bad. The fact that the reader was my oldest son makes the loss a tragedy beyond comprehension. The death of my
The Unwanted Journey: Part 1 Read More »
“Did you watch the chairs?” my wife Kim asked. I gave what I assume was a puzzled look. “Why would I watch the chairs?” I asked. “Are they going somewhere?” Kim held up a bowl of fruit. “I said, ‘Did you wash the cherries?’” she rolled her eyes. “I am so tired of repeating myself.
Hearing Aids and a Glass of Merlot Read More »