These “Woodshed Moments” are equivalent to grabbing ner-do-wells by the scruff of the neck to get their attention and saying “Straighten up and fly right or else — and here’s why”!
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…
“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…
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…
In the throes of partisan politics, one often hears the comment made that this or that person or position is “on the wrong side of history.” Most frequently, such assertions come from “liberal” or “progressive” quarters, railing against those who insist on holding the line against change, who long for the “good ol’ days” when…
It occurred to me following the Thanksgiving engorgement last year that we spend a lot of our time and energy overindulging in things that make us “groggy”. In fact, it sometimes seems that numbing ourselves is a full time pursuit with its own end game for its own purpose: If we’re not numb, we’re…