Our World and Why You are Here Our world, teeming with diversity alive in all nations, states, cities, towns, hamlets, in the obscurity of some mountainous regions, in green forests and jungles, by beaches with crystalline waters under a magnificent sun – this is our world of vastly different ways of living large, of unique manners for inhabiting spaces and places. READ MORE In Pursuit of Wisdom Wisdom – How would you define that word? In Simon’s popular song, the pursuit of wisdom is elusive, as he settles for “a little drop.” It’s a work in progress that he hopes to achieve some semblance of before he’s “through.” Isn’t that what growing old is all about? READ MORE Armchair Philosophy on Life’s So-called Givens Recently I came across a profound statement from a veteran psychotherapist and talented author, Irvin D. Yalom. In the preface of “Love’s Executioner,” published in 2000, he wrote how “four givens are particularly relevant to psychotherapy: the inevitability of death for each of us and for those we love; the freedom to make our lives as we will; our ultimate aloneness; and, finally, the absence of any obvious meaning or sense to life. However grim these givens may seem, they contain the seeds of wisdom and redemption.” READ MORE Escoteric Concepts About Eudaimonia How a Cottage Industry of Academic Articles Define Our Better Selves We have wars, refugees, immigration problems, malevolent dictatorships, overly zealous religious groups, terrorists, poverty, drug addiction, violent crime, and climate-change issues in more than enough places worldwide. Yet, from an historical perspective, the doom and gloom are not as prevalent. Still, our best version of human blossoming and well-being has a long way to go. In other words, we still gotta whole lotta of work to do to become better human beings. READ MORE The Wise Path Choosing spirituality. Before I opine about some of the parameters of a spiritual life, I offer the following caveats: Everyone has the right to pursue whatever theology they desire, and we must be tolerant of the large and widespread diversity of beliefs that exist worldwide. However, and this is an important however, you do not have the right to impose your beliefs on others, and you certainly cannot assert that your beliefs have more validity or truth to them than anyone else’s beliefs. And then, of course, there’s one additionally important caveat to what I am about to get into here: Your beliefs and their relevant actions cannot harm anyone in any way. READ MORE On “Meaning in Life and Why It Matters” There are certain books so tedious and difficult to fully comprehend that I surprise even myself when I actually read them in their entirety. One such book I recently completed fits that billing: “Meaning in Life and Why It Matters,” by Susan R. Wolf, a well- established philosophy professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who formerly taught at Harvard University, the University of Maryland, and Johns Hopkins University. The book features a two-part Tanner Foundation lecture Wolf gave under the same title over two days at Princeton University in 2007. The lectures are followed by comments from four other eminent philosophers and psychologists, along with Wolfe’s responses to their comments. READ MORE