I’ve lived long enough to know that it’s possible to crush someone’s spirit into non-existence. To break someone down so they can’t take another step. Miraculous healing is possible, but it often empowers those who’ve done the crushing to keep doing it indefinitely. Consequences level the field and are, perhaps, the best and most honest…
Tag: learning
Personal Preferences
Reading one’s own social media feeds that have been limited and shaped over weeks and years by algorithmic responses to your own personal preferences is not “doing your research.”
Stupid Stuff
Don’t do stupid stuff. Own and apologize for the stupid stuff you’ve done. Don’t use the stupid stuff you’ve already done to justify doing more stupid stuff. Don’t use the stupid stuff that others have done to justify doing more stupid stuff. Don’t judge others by the stupid stuff they’ve done, because you’ve done equally…
Notice
Notice how the older people in your life tend to go silent as they age. Not because they have nothing to say. But because they no longer live simply to be heard.
Enough
We often rail against the seemingly unreasonable expectations of others when really it’s our own expectations that are crushing us. The best gift we can give ourselves is to release our expectations as to what is going to happen in the next five minutes, much less the next five years—expectations of what others are going…
Must Begin
Love must begin with respect. Two people cannot move forward merely tolerating each other’s differences and looking down on each other as ignorant idiots who can’t see past the noses on your faces. No relationship can survive that. Neither can a country. There must be mutual respect for the genuine value that others bring to…
Can’t Know
We can’t know young people or assess their potential by looking at their grades or by sizing up their music or clothing or what they do on Friday nights. We can’t predict their futures by looking at their pasts. We can’t tell their motives by looking at their friends. We can’t pick out who will…
What We Know
We love what we know. There’s so much we don’t know.
Too Much
To some, you’re too old to understand how things are. Too young to remember how things were. Too experienced to be innocent. Too innocent to have half a clue. Too educated to be in touch with reality. Too uneducated to comprehend the complexity. Too left to be right. Too right to care. Here’s to those…
Live It Well
One of the strongest indicators of improving mental health is losing the need to escape life and instead looking for new ways to live it well.
Consider
Carefully consider the questions you ask. You’ll be stuck with the answers.
Outcomes
Your actions and outcomes are affected not only by what you put in your mind but also by what you fail to put there.
Fragmentary Life 