Whether they are professional or personal, struggles and challenges come to us all, and we suffer in one way or another. One of my clients is struggling through a career transition after taking time off to care for her father during his cancer treatment, much like the many women who take time off for childbirth, […]
“Comparison is the thief of joy” if your desire is to come out on top. But it turns out there’s a case for coming out on the bottom in comparison. Others have made the business case for humility quite compellingly, and a recap is omitted here in the interest of brevity. Leaving aside the debate […]
There’s a mashup meme that links the “seven deadly sins” to different social media channelsª: gluttony with Yelp, lust with Tinder, greed with LinkedIn, sloth with Netflix, envy with Facebook, pride with Instagram, and—you guessed it—wrath with Twitter. A lot of argument happens on this particular social network, whether generated by presidents or peons. At […]
One of the best qualities of Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything is that it is so well written. This is wonderful for the aspiring chef, for he needs to return to the book often for reference and assurance, and it’s pleasant to find a voice and personality in the text rather than just the […]
There’s a difference between knowing someone and knowing about someone. It’s the difference between persons and pixels. The Greek word for “person”—prosopon—also means “face”. Before the digital era, if you wanted an image of someone’s face, you had to hire a painter or sculptor to create it. Then came photography and now—digital images, which are […]
Ignorance is no excuse. This adage usually refers to wrong action, like running a red light because you didn’t know that when you’ve crossed the line, you’ve crossed the line. But ignorance is also no excuse for a lack of action. If you have a wise quotation to share but can’t think of a creative, […]
This is new year’s resolution season, and among the most popular from year to year are those focused on bodily health. On that subject, here’s a morsel of ancient wisdom with perhaps an unexpected twist: A monk should always act as if he were going to die tomorrow; yet he should treat his body as […]
A neighbor across the street has a customized license plate that reads: BN2SELF. Perhaps it’s a bit uncharitable of me, but I don’t find myself particularly interested in getting to know this person, let alone follow her. In one of his texts on guarding the intellect, Saint Isaiah the Solitary writes, “Without anger a man […]
Originally a warning to subway travelers, the phrase conveys a powerful image for all travelers. In any journey or pursuit we might undertake, there’s always a gap between where we are and where we want to be. In the late 4th century, a monk named John Cassian visited the Egyptian desert to learn about the […]
The assembly line is perhaps the most iconic image of the Industrial Revolution. Situated in a cavernous factory, filled with smoke or the din of whirring metal, sweaty workers attend to their machines, drilling or joining the product as it rolls by, each according to his role. In Becoming Attached, Robert Karen looks through the […]