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Carlin once complained that all you ever hear about in this country is our differences. That’s all the media and the politicians are ever talking about. The things that separate us. That’s the way the ruling class operates in any society. They try to divide the rest of the people, they keep the lower and the middle classes fighting with each other so that they, the rich, can run…

A bizarre and scary part about growing up is experiencing your home as a visitor, rather than a resident. It just kind of happens one day. You come back home for a holiday or a long weekend, and you realize that may of the things you used to find comfort in, aren’t there anymore. Or they are still there, but they just don’t do it for you anymore. Like…

The most penetrating question ever asked: What if we trusted that nothing was missing right now? Maybe we could quiet our yearning and listen to our own gifts. Maybe we could focus on living the life that we have. Maybe we could make more conscious choices about our experience. Maybe we could believe that all we ever need is before us, around us and within us. The possibilities are…

We tyrannize ourselves with shoulds. All of these cognitive distortions, typically inherited from social and cultural expectations, tell us a story about where we think our lives ought to have be by a certain time or a certain age. Spencer, the brilliant award winning actress, delivered an inspiring commencement speech about this very topic: She told the students that what defines you now will be mere shades and hues…

Getting better doesn’t always mean doing more. Sometimes the gateway to growth is less. We create blank space where there had not been any before. And in that void, the natural order emerges. The most notable opportunity is with our schedules. Instead of scrambling from meeting to meeting, call to call, activity to activity, we install buffer for exits and reentries. Instead of working right up to the moment…

If you’re the kind of person who consistently complains about your expensive, mediocre, unsatisfying lunch sandwiches, that you physically went out and purchased with your own money, then you don’t get even a wink of sympathy from me. People who complain about situations that they create, decisions that they make, are in desperate need of some upside down ankle shaking. My patience has officially run out. Carlin used to…

When my friend’s oncologist told him that his chemotherapy treatment would require eighteen months of limited use of his mouth, he had to dramatically rethink his business model. Because as an entrepreneur, the majority of his job was talking. To clients, to small groups, to the media, most of his work involved flapping his gums for profit. And he was extremely proficient at that skill. Every time he opened…

Wearing a nametag on a crowded subway during rush hour is fascinating experience. Because in most big cities, people are expert at ignoring others. They’re trained at pretending that other people don’t exist. And so, if you try to strike up a conversation with someone you don’t know, that person will likely treat you like you’re either unhinged or trying to get a date. It’s a violation of social…

During a cryogenics test, a pilot frozen in the thirties awakes in the nineties, but time is running out, as his body starts to age rapidly. Tell me that logline doesn’t sound intriguing. It comes from an underrated movie that came out during my teenage years, Forever Young. Mel Gibson romantically portrays the anguish of not being able to share his life with the one he loves. In one…

There’s a classic scene from an old cop movie where the detective discovers that his wife is having an affair with his best friend and business partner. Trying to make excuses for his behavior, the cheater uses that tired old movie trope: It just happened. The detective replies. It just happened? Sure, it just happened. It could happen to anybody. It was an accident. You tripped and fell and…