The Unlikelihood of the David and Goliath Story

History often compresses courage into a single moment. We remember the stone that struck Goliath’s forehead, but we forget the claws, the fangs, and the nights in the wilderness that came first. David did not discover bravery on the battlefield; he carried it there, forged earlier in encounters no one was watching. Let’s dig deeper […]

One of the great limitations of the human mind is not ignorance. It is intuition. We tend to think of intuition as wisdom’s close cousin—something ancient, refined, even noble. “Trust your gut,” we are told. And often, that advice works just well enough to keep us believing it always will. But intuition has a darker […]

In terms of my professional life, I’ve always seen myself as a “teacher” first and foremost. About 18 years into my career I found myself in a formal teaching role when a local community college hired me to join their adjunct faculty. Most of my “teaching” prior to that time had been in the corporate […]

In everyday conversation, sociopath and psychopath are often used interchangeably—usually to describe someone who behaves badly, selfishly, or cruelly. In psychology, however, these terms refer to distinct patterns of personality and behavior. Understanding the difference matters, not only for accuracy, but to avoid carelessly mislabeling difficult or unconventional people. Both sociopathy and psychopathy fall under […]

One of the most entertaining movies I remember from an earlier era was Raiders of the Lost Ark which hit the theaters in 1981. It was a fun movie with actor Harrison Ford as “Indiana Jones” (AKA Professor Henry Walton Jones, Jr.) If you recall the film, perhaps you can recall that in spite of […]

“And now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, . . . […]

There is a passage found in an ancient sacred text (The Book of Mormon) which is at once fascinating and disquieting. The passage is a statement by a Hebrew prophet of God who had lived in the area around Jerusalem in the days of the biblical prophet Jeremiah, around 600 BC. This prophet I have […]

One of my favorite places to go is the Musical Instrument Museum. Located in the northern reaches of Phoenix, it’s about an hour’s drive from my home. But the drive is always worth it, whether I am attending a cultural event, a live concert, or wandering for hours through the museum itself, captivated by their […]

Questions are our most powerful intellectual tool. In fact, every invention is the result of someone formulating a question, and then wrestling with that question. There are times I feel particularly contemplative, and I thus ponder questions that are deep, and strange, and peculiar. Sometimes I find myself staring at the ceiling at night, plagued […]

It is interesting to note that there are scientists out there that try to measure the relative pain from various stings that we humans sometimes encounter. There’s even a famous Sting Pain Index called the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. It’s one of the strangest projects in entomology (i.e., the scientific study of insects). Created by […]