The holidays have become too loud, and all the noise is drowning out what Christmas was meant to celebrate. Perhaps quiet can put things back into perspective.

Our cultural narrative about grief is that it is something best left unmentioned. However, grief actually has quite a few positive results including helping us manage our world better.

Our current societal entertainments are not so far removed from those depicted in The Hunger Games series. In order to get back on track, we ought to focus on our real lives and not on what passes for reality in the entertainment industry.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” This innocent question is maddeningly hard to answer for many young people. Part of the difficulty is born of the surreal environment we build for our children and the distance we put between them and the adult world.

The Occupy movement is causing us to confront our denial head-on. People are finally talking about — and in some cases, even taking action to remedy — injustices that have been with us for far too long.

When people fail to take responsibility for their choices and actions — when they behave with a sense of entitlement and irresponsibility — it costs our whole society dearly. To remedy this social ill we need to acknowledge the issues and deal with them, otherwise our precious freedom will be eroded.

The Penn State scandal brings up questions about morality and behavior. One issue that has been largely ignored is that of evil and how it is not as rare as we would like to believe.