Category Archives: Fundamentals
Odd Fellows
Original artwork by Leah Palmer Preiss Odd Fellows Perhaps I was doomed to be an “Odd Fellow” from the start. My dad was a card-carrying member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. (Yes, it’s a real organization! http://www.ioof.org/) But, quite apart from this formal association, he did a lot of “odd” things informally … […]
Read moreDance With Life
In 1996, Susan Jeffers, Ph.D., released a book entitled “End the Struggle and Dance with Life” (St. Martin’s Press) This book had some great advice for people completely overrun by life’s circumstances. Jeffers, personally, had not only driven herself to obtain a Ph.D., but distinguished herself as a prolific writer, been divorced, and was enduring […]
Read moreIllusions
We live every day with illusions. Some of these illusions are necessary – just to make enough sense in our own corner of the world to be able to function with minimal angst … until, at some point, the illusions no longer work. Then we either face the truth and consequences and “new realities” or […]
Read moreHeadwinds and Tailwinds
“The Head Winds / Tail Winds Asymmetry” Tom Gilovich and Shai Davidai https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27869473 J Pers Soc Psychol. 2016 Dec;111(6):835-851. http://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-is-my-life-so-hard/ “The idea should be familiar to anyone who cycles or runs for exercise. Sometimes you’re running or cycling into the wind, and it’s not pleasant. You’re aware of it the whole time. It’s retarding your progress […]
Read moreRelevance
Perhaps more fundamentally important than mission or purpose in a life well lived is RELEVANCE. We want and need affirmation. But, even more so, we need to know that who we are and what we do is relevant … legitimate … worth something … and that, somehow, we are OK … being who we are […]
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