First, I’m not depressed if you saw the title and felt worried. I’m taking a break from my usual topics because I read an article on depression that hypothesized it was a different state of consciousness, not just another emotion. I’m not sure what that definition means, but depressed people often describe depression as something you can’t understand unless you’re really, truly depressed. But every description I’ve heard sounds like[…] Keep reading →

Why do so many people lecture me on what it’s like to be a straight white male, and why is what they say invariably unlike my life? Do they tell other people what they should be like due to their sexuality, skin color, and sex? Why do they presume to know so much about me and what motivates them to tell me about my life? Why do they tell me[…] Keep reading →

Michael Jackson’s song, Man in the Mirror, got stuck in my head: I’m starting with the man in the mirrorI’m asking him to change his waysAnd no message could have been any clearerIf you wanna make the world a better placeTake a look at yourself and then make a change It’s clear: If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make[…] Keep reading →

Since sharing my September 11 experience on the podcast, I lost $10 million on September 11, 2001. Here is what I learned from those who sacrificed and served, I’ve shared my story of loss with friends and family. As I have for twenty years, I hedged describing that loss with the context of those who died, those who volunteered to put themselves in harm’s way with the intent to defend[…] Keep reading →

I exercise on a five-day rotation between lifting, resting, and cardio so months with 31 days give me an extra rest day to experiment. This time I decided to try to recapture my nearly five-year-old achievement of 5,000 meters in 20 minutes on the rowing machine, which means averaging 2:00/500m for 20 minutes. A well-trained man in his 20s or 30s could do it easily. A serious competitor might not[…] Keep reading →

Talking to a friend about meditating, after I said something, he made me repeat it so he could write it down. He told me to post it. Here it is: If you get interrupted every nine minutes, you can’t come up with an idea complex enough to require ten minutes uninterrupted thinking. In other words: If you get interrupted every nine minutes, you’ll never come up with an idea that[…] Keep reading →

About ten months in to meditating 20 minutes two days out of my five-day exercise cycle, a few updates. I last updated in November on my full lotus pose. Practice is making it more comfortable. Here’s my post with the video of me in the pose. You may have noticed my sitting on a folded towel on a folded sheet. Here’s me, about to sit on the folded towel on[…] Keep reading →

Maybe from the podcasting, maybe from writing, maybe from my general interest in self-awareness and preferring to do things deliberately, not thoughtlessly. We all know about filler words and sounds like “umm,” “like,” “so,” and “and.” I’m not sure why we use them. Lately I’ve started trying to reduce them, which takes concentration, so therefore distracts from speaking and listening. I’ve been asking myself lately why we end sentence with[…] Keep reading →

I’ve read a lot of books on nature. Most focus on facts, figures, and information that don’t help. To the extent they provoke emotion, they do so heavyhandedly, lacking genuineness or authenticity. If you’re explaining, you’re losing, as a former U. S. President said, and most books on nature explain. I just finished a book, Over, which you can review online in its entirety for free. It’s mostly a book[…] Keep reading →