What Good is Potential Without Courage?
“One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” – Maya Angelou Maya Angelou once said, “One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential.” With courage comes the ability […]
Talent is a Terrible Thing to Waste
“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” – Stephen King Human beings are blessed with one sort of talent or another. Some are great at public speaking. Others are great at composing music. Still others are very good at writing essays; […]
On Complexity and Equilibrium of Societies
“For when too large a proportion of the populace is supporting itself by the indirections of trade and business and commerce and art and the million schemes of men in cities, then the complexity of society is likely to become so great as to destroy its equilibrium, and it will always be out of balance […]
Marcus Aurelius and “The Good Life“
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by.” – Marcus Aurelius Accepting and cherishing your own individuality is the most important thing in leading a good life. The greatest […]
Why You Should Follow Your Curiosity
Without getting too philosophical, I have found that spending my time investigating obscure curiosities is the best way to not get too involved with the problems of the present moment. One of the great paradoxes that exist within the human mind is that both the past and future. Neither actually exists within the present, yet […]
The Inevitability of Human Entropy
This is a response to a particularly thought-provoking newsletter from one of my favorite Substack writers. It’s part of her 28-day Writer’s Notebook challenge to find joy in writing again. This particular post from Collected Rejections gave me pause. Valorie Clark discusses the word “inevitability,” its roots, and the conclusion she comes to is that […]
The Imagination Yet Must Still Reign
“These days some plans are made optimistically, knowing they have a great percentage of not happening. Yet the Imagination reigns. In that respect we can go anywhere, save by the plot of doubt.” – Patti Smith, “Book of Days” In the April 29th entry of her “Book of Days,” Patti Smith captures a sentiment both […]
Is It Possible to Live on Art Alone?
As a huge fan of the hit Discovery show Mythbusters, I was surprised to learn that Mythbusters Build Team member Kari Byron had written a book called Crash Test Girl. It took something like two weeks to show up in my box (thanks extremely slow postal service) but it was well worth the wait. I […]
How to Be Among the Stars
One of the few good memories I have from junior high school was a motivational poster that read “reach for the moon, because if you don’t make it, you’ll be among the stars.” This poster quote has rarely left the back of my mind. After all, if you shoot for the moon, but can’t quite […]