Well, I finally got COVID, or should I say COVID finally got me. In this article, I discuss some things I learned from my thankfully brief bout with COVID.   Despite being fully vaccinated and trying to be reasonably careful, COVID fi…

  In this article I talk about how you can deal with difficult times by understanding Stoicism’s main tenet, that some things are in your control, and other things are not. Also, I relate a very personal story of a challenging time in th…

Humans are hardwired with a desire for control. In fact, one well-established view contends that the desire for control is the basic motivation for all other motives, emotions, cognitions, and social behaviors. We evolved to derive benefits from a s…

Despite my goal of being a good Stoic, two phrases that are commonly-used in online debates “OK boomer” and “snowflake generation,” usually raise my blood pressure. By the way, I know that many online forums are a cesspool of…

 Many years ago, and I mean MANY years ago, I was in junior high and had a massive crush on a cheerleader. At the end of the basketball season, the coach threw a party for the team. We were allowed to invite dates, which was a very big deal. Ev…

No person ever steps in the same river twice, because it’s not the same river, and it’s not the same person. –Heraclitus   Recently I met Trudie Jackson, the first transgender candidate to run for President of the Navajo Nat…

[Note: This essay was originally written for the Flagstaff Business News. Monsoon comes in the summer in the desert southwest of the United States. It’s a pretty amazing time.] As I write this, we are well into the monsoon season, which for m…

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday, a time for families and football. Many families have a tradition in which each family member stands up and declares their thankfulness for something. While such traditions are great, thankfulness or gratitude sho…

When we lived in Arizona, my dog, Maggie, and I returned from an early morning walk when Maggie spied a rather large grey cat lounging in front of our house. Maggie did not take kindly to the cat’s presence. She tugged at her leash, trying to …