The emptiness of screen time
It draws me in, filling my eyes and ears with distracting beauty. It envelops my senses and makes me forget painful truths for a time. It promises hidden wisdom and connections with like-minded individuals but instead isolates me and offers me up as prey to willing buyers. Television, computer screens, and other personal devices provide […]
Why relationships cannot thrive without boundaries
My wife once asked me to help her put some shelves together. It was a Monday night though, and I play volleyball with my friends on Mondays. I heard somewhere that healthy relationships need boundaries and that we need them to keep our sanity. A strong boundary protecting volleyball night seemed like a good idea […]
Unity under siege
In 1916, Ernest Shackleton and his men accomplished a seemingly impossible feat requiring complete unity. Their once proud ship had been smashed by the ice flows around Antarctica, and the tight-knit crew was stranded for months on the ice and later on Elephant Island with little hope of rescue. Shackleton resolved to take five men from his […]
Supergiants and the purpose of life
In terms of volume, red supergiants are the largest stars in the universe and hard to find. Astronomers have identified just 80 of them. Supergiants make our sun look like a speck of dust passing a weather balloon. They are aging stars that used to be like our sun and are basically blowing themselves apart […]
The fragmentation of everything
About 335 million years ago, all the major land masses on earth were combined into a single supercontinent we call Pangaea.1 Then 200 million years ago, they began to break up and drift apart. When humans arrived, they further subdivided the continents into kingdoms, principalities, and tribes. The modern age is one of great ideological […]
Hugs and human rights violations
In René Spitz’s infamous study on orphaned infants in the 1940s, extreme measures were taken to avoid the spread of germs. Sheets separated the cribs, employees wore masks and gloves, and caregivers rarely held the infants.1 Despite having adequate food and medical care, the infants did not develop properly and were likely to fall prey […]
The meaning of life in photos
Occasionally an image captures the worth and potential of humanity. I was recently a judge in a photo contest for images capturing selflessness. We were looking for photos of people engaged in selfless behaviors or demonstrating selfless intent toward people or animals. Willingness to help someone else is a recognition of that person’s value – […]
Why ‘what they don’t know’ hurts everyone
Remember what it feels like to get away with something? To fool someone with a well-crafted lie? To take from another without notice or punishment? Is it a mixture of guilt and power? Perhaps it is a feeling of relief that you escaped the immediate consequences mixed with anxiety of a future reckoning. I once […]
Spirituality and religious connection
#TaxTheChurches was trending on Twitter recently. Most of the comments were not balanced assessments of how church donations and government programs influence the world. They were more like what you would expect during an evening of troll karaoke: mockery, anger, and ugliness. Much of this resentment comes from an understandable place. When I hear about […]
How the laws we make for ourselves make us miserable
The movie begins five minutes from now, and the theater is 20 minutes away. I’m pacing by the front door. After looking at my watch, I rub my eyes with the palms of my hands. Then I look at my watch again. I call upstairs to my date, “Are you almost ready? It’s time to […]