The gentle art of sanity amidst civilization
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The first few times I heard about God, I was already suspicious. My earliest clear memory of it was when I was five, leaning against the screen door of our small town home with my older sister, watching a midsummer thunderstorm unfold. We were in awe, like I have been at every thunderstorm since. I [...]
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Few books have been recommended to me so frequently and gushingly as Dubner and Levitt’s Freakonomics. After tracking down a used copy in a musty Brisbane book exchange, I devoured it before lunch the next day. It really is a compelling book. Its premise is that conventional wisdom is often wrong, because society’s experts use [...]
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Today I saw something on the sidewalk that made me stop. Somebody had etched a small swastika in the concrete. I wouldn’t say it exactly upset me, but it got me genuinely curious… who did that? Presumably, some kid stumbled across a rare chance to immortalize himself in unguarded wet concrete, and this was his [...]
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There is a quote, much celebrated by activists, cynics, and political science students the world over, that I think could use a second look: “It is no measure of good health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” ~Jiddu Krishnamurti I like Krishnamurti, and I think he’s being misunderstood here, but I’ll get to [...]
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Guest posts are rare on Raptitude, but today my friend and fellow writer Lisis Blackston has come out of retirement to share some of her wisdom with us. Enjoy. Sometimes it seems like everything we say on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, or even in conversations is either “preaching to the choir,” or “falling on deaf ears.” Readers and [...]
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This week celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking suggested that alien life almost certainly exists, and humans should do everything we can to avoid contact with it. He reasons that contact with aliens would probably be fatal to us, likening it to the European conquest of the New World: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the [...]
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Recently I remarked on Facebook how I’ve been using a lot of exclamation marks recently! I’m not sure why, I used to hate them, but in emails and tweets and other short correspondence they do add a touch of enthusiasm that would otherwise be missing! But as you can see, they are also heavy-handed and [...]
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An expert poker player will shred a novice every time, even though both players have the same chance of drawing strong cards. Knowing the odds has something to do with it, but not as much as you might think. In Texas Hold’em, today’s most popular form of poker, each player only gets two cards so [...]
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Yesterday I came across a familiar quote on Twitter: “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” ~ Thomas Edison Then today I came across an equally interesting quote from another historical figure: “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” ~ Ben Franklin Oh. With the information age [...]
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Earlier today I wrote a draft of a rather negative article about my initial impressions about Hollyhock, the spiritual/educational retreat I’m at right now. My expectations were completely wrong (aside from the astonishing food here) and I was resentful. I deleted my little rant. It was what I was feeling at the time, but since [...]
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