A dear friend stumped me by asking, “On the operating table or in the emergency room, would you withhold life-saving treatment from a dying patient, knowing their history of self-destructive choices?”

This was written in response to Scott Adams’s post, “Be Careful What You Wish For (Especially if it is Hitler).” Please read that first.

What is poison? What is fear? What is envy? What is anger? What is hatred?

Discomfort comes from swallowing our pride and submitting to your teenager’s new-found power and knowledge. Conclusion #4: Check your ego at the door.

Conclusion #3: Pick your battles. This means saving your energy to address and correct only the most consequential behaviors.

Conclusion #2: It is important to be crystal clear between both parents and children that the parent-child relationship is not identical with friendship.

Your teenager remains unexpectedly dependent on you to meet various needs in various situations, yet unexpectedly exerts his or her independence in other situations. Conclusion #1: Set your expectations in accordance with this reality.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.

Neal DeGrasse Tyson, John Cleese, and Francis Crick

I heard this song while growing up, and it remained in my memory simply because it mentions my name. The poem seems to celebrate unwavering focus in joyful work, illustrated by the honeybee.

Pain is like the barking of a dog. A healthy body uses pain to warn of danger or threat. If we acknowledge pain as a natural response and address it in a conscious way, it should naturally dissipate without causing unnecessary suffering.

At times, reasoning tells you that something is impossible, and experience reinforces this conclusion.

Would knowledge that there was a genetic component in polyamory make a difference? Would it make us more tolerant? Would it make it easier to accept?

Meditation is concentrating the front of the mind with a mundane task so the rest of the mind can find peace.

In order not to stray into delusion, we must ask ourselves whether our faith is truly a belief in an unlikely outcome, or a rejection of what we know to be true and possible

Is “faith” not the best word for following an intuition, when confronted by evidence to the contrary?

For decades, I have eschewed faith…Therefore, it surprised and puzzled me…to find that…I possess and profess a quality best described as faith.

It is incorrect to believe that people “lose their religion” with education.

The best of conservatism is recognizing that institutions like legal frameworks, moral codes, and political philosophies are structures that provide support for societies and economies.

We asked a friend about her first child, a 1-year-old daughter.

Paul Graham makes a strong argument that differences in wealth are not inherently bad (indeed, they have positive effects on society as a whole).

आकाशात् पतितं तोयं यथा गच्छति सागरम्

I took a course on great books in college, and the question of what constitutes a “great book” was visited throughout the course. In my recent study of the Bhagavad Gita, the same question has come to mind.

I’ve always maintained that my political views are rooted in the works of Ayn Rand…These roots have been shaken by the financial crisis of 2008 and the current Presidential election.

I recently read a quote attributed to Yoshida Kotaro Sensei: “There is no failure, only feedback.” On the same day, I read “Must fail to suc