The Internet and its Unintended Consequences

There is an old saying that’s been around for a while: “Be careful what you wish for.” There are times that we wish for things, and actually attain things, that may seem like a good idea at the time, but then we end up regretting the decision. That is because often times there are unintended […]

There is in the music of various modern-day composers a certain mesmerizing quality that enables one to become lost in one’s thoughts, or transported, however temporarily, to a higher plane. The musical project dubbed VNV Nation (Victory Not Vengeance Nation) has produced a moving piece titled “As It Fades” which can only be described as […]

There is a falsehood floating around out there in the form of this phrase: “I have no regrets.” How is that possible? Life, if lived to any degree or capacity, is loaded with regrets. How many people have fantasized about going back in time to their beginnings and starting all over again, and being able […]

Perhaps my all-time favorite television show is 24 starring Kiefer Sutherland. The show is an action thriller featuring a character named Jack Bauer (played by Sutherland) who works for a Federal Agency called CTU (Counter-Terrorism Unit). Jack Bauer is constantly doing 24-hour stints in foiling terrorist plots, although he himself is occasionally captured by the […]

Brené Brown is a popular thought-leader with a devoted following. I have only scant familiarity with her work and don’t have an opinion on the few things of hers that I’ve read or heard in the past. However, recently I was sitting in a meeting where the presenter was using PowerPoint slides. The final slide […]

It’s interesting to realize that the manner in which people communicate, the way in which they carry themselves, seems to have a great deal of pull. I am becoming more and more convinced that people who go into attack mode on Facebook, coming across as hyper-aggressive to the point of being obnoxious, may not actually […]

Whenever I hear someone speak or write in terms of “my truth” or “your truth,” I immediately recognize that truth is not their thing. Opinion is. Truth is simply there. It is not owned by me or by you. We either submit to truth, or we delude ourselves into imagining that whatever opinion or preference […]

Questions are our most potent intellectual tool. They are the most significant arrows in our intellectual quiver. How questions are framed really matter. Change just a few words, modify the syntax, and you could get a very different answer. I credit Gordon Allport for this pithy story to illustrate this: Two Catholic Priests were engaged […]

Although I’ve never met her in person, I’ve gotten acquainted with a relatively young lady – quite a bit younger than myself – through social media. An artist by profession, she is extraordinarily talented at drawing and painting. I’ve literally been mesmerized by some of her work, and I’ve told her I plan to one […]

A news item caught my eye this week. The incident in question took place on July 10th of this year; I’m writing about it now because an arrest took place just this week following an anonymous tip. Back in July, a man by the name of Marc Cohen, age 63, was taking his wife out […]