Monastery life

I think I could be happy being a monk/scholar/priest, whatever you want to call it. A person who leaves behind 'life' in order to devote themselves to the world of the mind/spirit. If I could spend every waking hour studying, reading, learning, teaching, etc, I think I could give up material possessions and all the …

Older than I’ve ever been

And now I'm even older... My birthday was on Friday, and they just keep coming quicker. One day I'll wake up and be 50, then another I'll wake up and be dead. Just like your birthday, you have a death-day that you pass each year. A future anniversary of your demise. Which day could it …

Time travel

The only way time travel could work is if the traveler had been completely removed from existence, and was only an observer looking in. Peering through a window, fast forwarding and rewinding time at will but forever separate from causality. If you could go everywhere, see everything--but interact with nothing... would it be worth it …

Tomorrow is always one more day away

"Ever read The Brothers Karamazov?" I asked. "Once, a long time ago." "Well, toward the end, Alyosha is speaking to a young student named Kolya Krasotkin. And he says, Kolya, you're going to have a miserable future. But overall, you'll have a happy life." Two beers down, I hesitated before opening my third. "When I …

Stop avoiding confrontation

If someone is saying something you disagree with, speak up. Silence, or polite smiling and nodding, is equal to agreeing with them in their minds. Imagine you are going on about how awesome Nickleback is and everyone around you is either silent or nodding absently. You are going to assume your opinion is perfectly normal, …