Just finished reading all about the Nxivm sex slave trial. Before that, we were captivated by the Netflix series on sexual abuse (and perhaps murder) involving the Baltimore diocese of the Catholic church. Prior to that was the equally compelling documentary series on the Oshi cult in Oregon. What all of the folks involved have in [...]

Each of us knows that person who is thin-skinned, hypersensitive, forever waiting for his/her buttons to be pushed, right? Of course you do. He/she gazes back at you in the mirror each day. Ah yes, you think, no doubt in a magnanimous spirit, I suppose I can be a bit sensitive on some issues. But [...]

A few words on coincidence, kismet, synchronicity - those curious little breadcrumbs some higher intelligence seemingly sprinkles throughout our lives in hopes, I suppose, of leading us to a greater truth. Mostly because I've experienced both, I've come to suspect there are two forms of these little miracles: one is of the painful variety, the [...]

We imagine that the so-called 'spiritual path' is principally reserved for the world's sufferers. The miserable set out to find themselves or the truth or God or whatever, so that they can put an end to their suffering and get back to the business of living life. That was more or less the mindset of [...]

In case you missed it, the planet’s insects have now joined the planet's other animal groups, its rainforests and oceans, its climate and mammals, in a catastrophic collapse that puts the entire biosphere (aka life on Earth) at risk. By now you no doubt know the routine: humankind sets out to 'fix' a problem - in [...]

If you really stop to think about it, to whittle down human existence to its rawest essence, each of us has but one of two choices to make: invest our lives in the outside world, or turn inward to find the source of the one said to be experiencing that world (and itself in it). [...]

Self-confidence. Self-loathing. Key measuring sticks by which we measure human happiness or misery, success or failure. We eschew self-loathing, but we aspire to self-confidence, self-esteem, self-love. And what we really want (but shhhh, don't admit it, since that would make us look bad), is to stand just a little taller than the neighbor, to make more [...]

The body of my ex-wife was discovered the day after Thanksgiving. Just days later, a good friend took his own life. Both had struggled, in one way or another, with depression, anxiety, self-loathing - and the heavy drinking that so often comes with such ailments. You're no doubt familiar with these labels, perhaps even suffer [...]

As parents we wonder how best to raise our children. Understandably, we use the very same blueprint we've used for our own lives, encouraging our kids to pursue love, meaning, success, money, security, career, etc. And yet, the lives built by those blueprints are rarely if ever happy ones (certainly not permanently so), are far [...]

In a scene from the screwball comedy, Meatballs, a summer camp counselor played by Bill Murray gives a rousing speech about the futility not just of an upcoming competition with a neighboring rich kids' camp, but of life itself (no matter how hard one tries, shrieks Murray, no matter how much God might be on our [...]