A Thought: On the Timing of Destiny

I used to believe that we were brought to situations and people at the times in our lives when we needed to be there. I still do, but for a different reason.

Now I believe it's because we are always, if we approach life openly and honestly, with a modicum of self-awareness and a lot of curiosity, capable of learning from those places in which we find ourselves and those with whom we do. Read more!

A Thought: On the Other Shoe

Rather than being scared of getting hit by the other shoe when it drops, how's about we try to catch it and think, hey, free shoes? Read more!

A Thought: On a Closed Door

There is something inherently unsettling in finding a closed door in your home, one which is normally left open, where you aren't expecting one to be so, especially when alone in the house.  Read more!

A Thought: On Argument and Semantics

If semantics are the only things that you can argue, then you probably need to stop arguing. Read more!

A Thought: On Changing the Past

We cannot change the past, but we can allow the past to change us. Read more!

A Thought: On the Power of Inclusion

There are few things better at motivating one to great change than feelings of loneliness and exclusion. Read more!

A Thought: On Us and Them

The human mind is exceptional at creating monsters, wired to do so, to make an us and a them.  It is, however, also capable of rising above what are inevitably petty distinctions, of reasoning, finding compromise and, most importantly, of understanding.  It is only by doing so that we have any hope for the future.

If you approach the world expecting to find enemies, you always will.  If you approach it expecting to find allies, well, the same is also true. Read more!

A Thought: On the Efficacy of Placing Blame

Placing blame is an exceptionally effective tool.  The evidence is everywhere.  We use it constantly, as individuals and as a society, to put off actually fixing all sorts of problems.

What it comes down to is this: Placing blame (not to be confused with trying to understand a problem) does nothing but provide a way to keep from having to do the work of fixing a problem.  Hands used to point fingers can't be used to clean up a mess. Read more!

A Thought: On Skepticism vs. Mockery

Skepticism is the mark of the intellectual.  Mockery and derision marks of the foolish. Read more!

A Thought: On the Eradication of Fear

While reason is the tool with which fear is eradicated, hope must be the force which drives it. Read more!

A Thought: On the Tragedy of a Catalyst

The difficult and sometimes tragic nature of a catalyst is that it is so often used up in the reaction it inspires. Read more!

A Thought: On Hopeful Inspiration

If you give people hope for a better future, remind them that just because things have been does not mean they must always be, they are more willing to fight for the tools to make it so.  Inspiration.  Education.  Innovation. Read more!

A Thought: On the Seed of Possibility

Possibility is amazing, intoxicating, the very essence of inspiration and that which drives the grandest of endeavors.  However, the seed of possibility, no matter how great, must first find fertile root in reality to truly thrive. Read more!

A Thought: On Nightmares and the Unknown

I wouldn't mind so much waking in a state of lingering dread, could I remember what it was that had put me there.  It's so much easier to remind myself that the nightmares aren't real when I can put a name to them. Read more!

A Thought: On Ignorance and Stupidity

Ignorance is simply the state of not knowing.  We are all of us ignorant about many, many things.  It is not until ignorance is clung to in the light of truth or reason that it becomes stupidity.  For the former, none can be held accountable.  For the latter, all perpetrators should be. Read more!

A Thought: On Being Thoughtful

Ever since I was a kid, people have called me thoughtful, for differing, but always positive, reasons.  While I appreciate it, there are times, like the middle of the night, when an unceasing ability to think becomes more of a burden than a blessing.  I don't think I'd give it up, though. Read more!

A Thought: On the Seductive Nature of Possibility

When we reach back into the past for something, for someone or some time in our lives long gone, it's rarely that for which we think we're trying to recapture so much as it is for the possibility of what could have been.  There are few things as seductive as lost possibility.  What we have to remember, though, is that there was a reason those things are gone, that they didn't become more than they were.  Learn.  Find new possibility. Read more!

The Sound of Nostalgia

Growing up in an old trailer, I never would have thought I'd miss the sound of the rain on the walls.
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A Thought: On the Bitter Irony of Pancake Acquisition

It is a bitter irony of life that the age at which one stops wanting to make pancakes comes so far ahead of the age at which one stops wanting pancakes.  Which is never.  You never stop wanting pancakes. Read more!

A Thought: On Playing Make-Believe

No matter how old you get, there are always going to be days where you just need someone you can play make-believe with. Read more!