Just last week, a guest in the Oval Office fainted during a White House announcement on the topic of weight-loss drugs, requiring the event to be cut short. President Donald Trump looked over at the fallen man with a small group gathered around to help him, and then turned to stare straight ahead, without evenContinue reading “The Recession of Compassion”
Tag Archives: Wisdom
First Things
If we don’t really understand ourselves, how can we know what we need to be healthy, happy, and whole? In our ignorance we are left groping for what feels good, for what might help us get ahead of the game, or at least distract us from the anxiety of not knowing what “the game” isContinue reading “First Things”
Post-theism and the River of Fire
In the nineteenth century a German philosopher and proto-psychologist named Ludwig Feuerbach argued that theology, or god-talk (theo+logos), is really a projection outward and upward of our higher human nature. We spontaneously imagine our own dormant virtues as existing separate from us in the deity, and then we aspire to be like god, which graduallyContinue reading “Post-theism and the River of Fire”
Author of Meaning
I’ve been interested in human nature, psychology, and development for a long time. My preference is to consider each of these through the lens of evolution, asking all along what a fully evolved and self-actualized human looks like. Most posts in this blog on creative change come at this question from one angle or another.Continue reading “Author of Meaning”
Free to Shine
In Clarity and Brilliance I offered a way of conceptualizing the dynamic integrity of human consciousness across its four types of intelligence: rational (RQ = mind), emotional (EQ = heart), visceral (VQ = will), and spiritual (SQ = soul/spirit). The validity of these four is well-established in the psychological literature, with our spiritual intelligence mostContinue reading “Free to Shine”
Drift, Sink, or Sail?
Your life is like a sailboat. The “boat” of your life needs to be buoyant and watertight, with sufficient integrity to withstand the force of waves against it. And the “sail” needs to be tall enough to catch the wind, as well as broad enough to harness its force. A sailboat with no sail canContinue reading “Drift, Sink, or Sail?”
Why Does It Matter?
Is life what happens to us, or is it more about our response to what happens? Are we really hapless patients in the process, reacting to the events and conditions of our life only after they have befallen us? No doubt, that’s how it often feels. We barely have enough freedom to raise our attentionContinue reading “Why Does It Matter?”
The Power of Myth
I keep coming back to the ideas of “mythic themes” and the “four ages of life” in this blog. They are in the background of just about everything else I think and write about. My ancestral heritage for this stream of thought includes Mircea Eliade, Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Northrop Frye – all pioneersContinue reading “The Power of Myth”
Checking In
“Hello, my name is Simon, and I like to do draw-rings.” It’s one of my favorite skits of Mike Meyers on Saturday Night Live. I like to do draw-rings, too, as my returning reader will attest. Sometimes just a seemingly minor tweak of a diagram can part the veil and show me something I hadn’tContinue reading “Checking In”
The Garden of Intention
A significant consequence of our fast-paced, distracted, and unsustainable way of life is that our brief glimpses into the enduring truths of existence are almost as quickly forgotten. It’s not that we’re any less intelligent than our ancestors were. We certainly know a lot more; or maybe I should say that we have a lotContinue reading “The Garden of Intention”
Tracts of Revolution 